Perspective
by soundslikelove75
Summary: Sometimes you have to change the way you see things. Sometimes all it takes is looking at the situation thru another person's eyes. Set after the disastrous Season 8.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: This is my first attempt at writing FanFiction so please bear with me. I promise no matter what I will finish this story. Nothing bothers me more than to start reading a story that just leaves you hanging forever so come what may it will have a conclusion lol. Also be forewarned that the story may have a slight twist but don't worry I'm a huge JH fan so it all works out in the end. Also some of the characters may be slightly OOC but I will do my best not to stray too much. All reviews and feedback is greatly appreciated.

Disclaimer: I do not own That 70's Show or any of its characters.

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July 25, 1981 – Minneapolis, MN

Even though it was summer in the city, the air had a bit of a chill in it today. It was about seventy-eight degrees, which wasn't by any means cold. Maybe it was the overcast skies or maybe it was just something in the air but whatever it was had felt different than the weather he had been experiencing over the last month since he arrived, Hyde thought. As a slight drizzle began to fall, he began to take in his surroundings. He had been so busy setting up the new store he hadn't been able to really check it out. He began to notice that his new area was quite busy. There were people from all sorts of life coming and going down the street and lots of local businesses and restaurants along the way. It seemed to be the perfect place for a new Grooves location.

When WB had asked him to if he was interested in opening and running a new location in a new city, Hyde jumped at the chance. Of course Mrs. Forman had a breakdown since he was the last one of her "babies" to leave the nest but he needed to get away. Things around Pont Place had been a bit more than dull to say the least. Eric and Donna were away at school, Kelso had his own life with Brooke and Betsy now and Fez well he was still around but that meant basically that he had to be the one to come up with things to do around there and that got to be a bit boring with it being just the two of them. Then of course was the last missing piece of the six-person puzzle, the one who had left long before any of them, Jackie. She left home in February of 1980 and no one had seen or heard from her since. She hadn't even said goodbye to any of them. At the time it happened he pretended not to care but deep down he was angry; angry with her but more at himself mostly because even though he would never admit it, he knew the reason why he didn't get a goodbye. He didn't deserve one.

Hyde finished relaxing against the El Camino and decided to get back into the store since the rain started coming down harder. People were scurrying everywhere trying to escape the afternoon shower. From behind him he heard a woman shouting for the public bus to wait up. Good luck with that he thought as he saw the annoyed face of the bus driver who looked like he wasn't about to delay his day any further. The woman, who had a baby in her arms as well as two bags of groceries, had pushed past him hurriedly. All of a sudden one of the groceries bags broke loose and the contents spilled on the ground. The woman tripped over one of the items and was headed to the ground with the baby still in her arms. Hyde ran over as fast as he could and caught her just before she hit the ground. As he looked up to ask if she was okay, as if seeing a ghost he could not have been more unprepared for what he saw. He promptly forgot what he was about to say. Hyde finally found his voice and spoke. All he could say was "Jackie.".

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I know this was short but the next chapter will be a little longer. I promise. I'm going to do my best to update this often as possible. The next chapter should be up within a day. Thanks for reading.


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you to all who have read and to a special thank you to those of you who have reviewed. I appreciate it.

Disclaimer- I do not own That 70's show or any of the characters.

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Chapter 2

Jackie just stared at the man holding her arm in unbelief. "Ste..Steven?"

Hyde carefully helped her to her feet all the while never breaking contact with her arm. Once Jackie was on her feet it finally dawned on her the severity of the situation. She never expected to run into him of all people today or anytime soon for that matter. He was one of the main reasons she had left Point Place and any resemblance of her former life there. The last year she had spent there was one of the hardest she ever gone thru and he was the primary source of her misery. She quickly remembered all the heated glares, continual burns and bitterness he dealt her on a regular basis and suddenly his hand on her arm felt like a weight.

She snatched her arm a way in a hurry and angrily shouted, "Get off me! I'm fine. What are you doing here?".

Right away Hyde felt her animosity towards him but he decided to not be his usual sarcastic self. "I live here now. I'm opening up a new Grooves store for WB right over there." he said pointing to the store's location.

Jackie couldn't believe her luck these days. She had moved here to get away from him and now he was going to be living right under her nose. "Great, just great. Just when I thought this city couldn't get any crappier."

"Yeah well whatever." Hyde understood the bite in her voice but he sure as hell wasn't going to put up with too much more of her snappy attitude especially when he just saved her and the little boy in her arms from hitting the concrete. Just then it hit him. Why is she holding a baby? Whose kid is that and why is he with Jackie? I hope to God she's working as a nanny now he wondered as these and a million other thoughts flooded his mind.

Jackie noticed him staring at the baby with a confused look on his face and immediately she panicked. "I have to get out of here. It's raining and we're getting soaked." she said as she turned to escape.

"Jackie wait! Don't leave just yet. Can you just talk to me for a second?" Hyde pleaded.

"Well this is a change. You actually want to talk instead of running away. That's new." she sniped.

"Look let's just get out of the rain for now and then if you want to finish yelling be my guest."

Hyde picked up her spilled groceries, grabbed her arm and pulled her towards his store. He directed them to the inside of his office so they could have some privacy from the contractors working on the store plus it was the only part of the store with a place to sit. Once inside, they both sat there silently waiting for the other to begin the conversation. The awkwardness of the situation was evident and neither one knew what to say or where to start. Hyde knew that since he dragged her into the store he should begin and so he coughed to clear his throat. "So uh yeah. I know you weren't quite expecting to see me just like I wasn't expecting to see you and even though you don't owe me any explanations I just want find out what happened to you. You left Point Place without saying a word to any of us. Even though we knew you could take care of yourself we were still worried about you. You just left so suddenly" he said calmly as he could.

"We? We who Hyde? Cause the way I remember it Donna hadn't been much of a friend in a long time and with Eric back in town I was the last person on her mind. Fez was around but things became kind of awkward with him when we broke up and Michael was busy with his family. And you, you stopped caring anything about me long before I left so as far as I see it there was no one to say goodbye to."

Hyde cringed when she called him by his last name. He knew at that moment that this wasn't the bubbly, perky, always optimistic Jackie he remembered. The person in front of him was way more guarded and he was going to have a time getting her let him in on anything going on in her life right now but he decided to try anyway. He knew her owed her that. Well not just her because he knew the gang back home, especially Mrs. Forman, would have his head on a platter once they found out he saw her and didn't try to talk to her. "Look Jackie I know things were tense when you left especially between us but that doesn't mean people didn't care. Everyone was just busy with their own lives I guess." he tried to reason.

"And what were you so busy doing? Trying to figure out another way to bring me down? Maybe some other prank you could get Fez to pull or burn me about the fact that I had yet another failed relationship? I saw the smug look on your face when you found out I had ended things with Fez. I had to get away. I had a LOT going on right before I left and even though I stayed away from the basement Point Place is only so big and I knew I would see you all at some point and I didn't want to deal with anyone. I needed to go somewhere and get a fresh start so I came here." Jackie stated.

Hyde stood up from his chair and started pacing back and forth. He just couldn't figure out what she meant when she said she had a lot going on before she left. Sure she had a break up with Fez but it was just Fez. Their own break up had been way worse. The time to leave town would've been when Sam showed up if anything. It just didn't make sense. Just at that moment the little boy in Jackie's arm started to fuss and she started to rock him. He stopped pacing and looked at her and then it hit him. The baby looked to be about almost a year but not quite. He knew it took nine months for a baby to arrive and he started to count backwards and BINGO! He looked at the baby and then back at Jackie and then repeated the action. He noticed the baby had Jackie's signature dark hair and pouty lips but he didn't recognize the rest of the features. "Jackie…is that your kid? Did you leave because you got knocked up?" he asked.

"Yes Steven he's mine and yes it's the reason I left." she whispered softly.

Immediately Hyde felt like he'd been punched in the stomach, like all the wind had been knocked out of his body. He quickly recovered from the shock and grew angry. "You know what Jackie you're such a hypocrite. You bitched at me for running away from my problems and what do you do? The same damn thing! You have no idea how things may have went down cause you took off." He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down because he didn't want to scare the kid plus he knew that yelling at Jackie wasn't going to get him anywhere. She was just as stubborn as him and all yelling ever did for them was cause even more problems but it was too late. Jackie was already on attack mode.

"You bastard! How dare you sit there and act all self-righteous like all the choices you've made in your life were just golden. You married a stripper…a stripper Hyde! Then you shoved your 'marriage' in my face while you and your whore burned me every chance you could but you know what takes the cake? You didn't even have the balls to admit it was a mistake. She left you once her real husband came back. You would think the whole experience would make you a little more humble but no you remained the same jackass you always were. So if you think you I'm gonna let you stand there and tell me that I was wrong for getting scared and running away you've got another thing coming. You don't get to judge me when YOU are the biggest coward of them all! "

Hyde was momentarily stunned. He knew she still harbored a lot of resentment towards him for the whole Sam debacle even when she said she was fine after the whole thing was over. One thing Jackie had always been good at was pretending to be fine when everything around her was crumbling. She did it when Kelso left her to go to California, when her dad went to prison, even when he had cheated on her with the Nurse. She would have an initial reaction of course be it tears or yelling but that only lasted briefly and soon enough she would smile and act is everything was back to normal even though he could always tell things were still bothering her.

He had actually done a lot of reflecting on the whole situation for the last year. Being alone more often tends to provide a lot of time to think. During that time he realized just how messed up things had gotten between him and Jackie even before she went to Chicago. He most certainly hadn't the best boyfriend in the world but she was always demanding more and more from him. However he realized what she wanted wasn't anything that she didn't deserve. She had only pushed him to be better not only for her but for himself but the slacker in him only wanted to do just enough to get by and after a while that just didn't cut it. Finally he was ready to try and what did he get in return? Kelso in a towel in the hotel room of the woman he loved. What happened in Chicago and the ensuing chaos afterwards seemed to be the final nail in the coffin for them. He had never felt such a range of emotions as he felt on that day and he vowed to himself he would never feel that way again. He knew that once he came back from Vegas things would never be the same and then when Sam showed up he figured this was the best way to rid himself of the whole situation with Jackie altogether. Even though eventually he found out that nothing happened with Kelso in the hotel room, he was still angry because he felt that Kelso never should've been there in the first place. It was inappropriate and the thought of him just being there as comfort to Jackie had enraged Hyde even more. He realized later on it was the reason why he has been so bitter and nasty to her during his relationship with Sam. Well at least part of the reason. He wanted her to know how it felt to have the person you love turn to someone else for comfort and he needed to push her as far away as possible; to protect not only himself but her as well because putting an end to their relationship meant she could find someone who could finally give her what she so desperately wanted. It wasn't until after she left that Hyde realized how much damage he had actually done. She had turned to Fez, of all people, for love. He burned her about it and tried to do his best to prevent it from happening at the time but looking back at the situation he realized that the Jackie that existed before he had hurt her would've never even thought of Fez that way. He was a good friend but he was still a pervert and this was who she was then calling her "true love". It sickened him to think that she would kiss and touch Fez the way she did with him. That he would get to hear the sounds that were meant only for his ears. He was so relieved when he had heard their brief relationship was over but of course he couldn't show it. He had actually figured that maybe things could go somewhat back to normal when it ended but she stopped showing up to the basement altogether and then a few weeks later it was discovered that she was gone.

Hyde took in all the words she shouted at him and realized that she was sort of in the right. He had no right to yell at her but how could she expect him to react after seeing her for the first time after she vanished without a trace. He decided that he wasn't going to make the situation worse and yell back plus he wanted some answers so he knew what he had to do at that moment. He had to act like a mature adult. "Look Jackie and I'm sorry for yelling at you but seeing you after all this time and then finding out you had a kid just took me by surprise. I get why you felt you had to leave town but didn't you have enough faith in any one back home to help you get thru it? I'm sure at least Fez would've been there for you if you had told him. He deserved to know something at least"

Jackie's anger subsided for a moment. She expected more yelling from Steven. That's how it had always been but of course he would switch things up and deny her the chance to use the argument as a way to escape this unexpected encounter. She could see actual genuine concern on his face. She sighed as she realized this was the part of the conversation she was dreading most. She could choose to run away again or just get it over with and get back to her life. She weighed her options carefully and decided there was probably no going back now especially since it would get back to the gang that he had run into her. "I didn't want to deal with the disappointed faces, judgments and questions form everyone and I didn't owe Fez anything more than the rest of you."

Hyde was starting to get annoyed with her and how she didn't understand the implications of her actions. She was back to her old selfish ways he thought. "Ok you didn't have to tell us but why not Fez? He might be a pervert and a bit creepy but he would've been there." He had a right to know about his kid Jackie!"

"It's not his baby!" Jackie shouted. "He's not the father." she said in a much quieter voice.

Hyde was floored. His brow instantly knotted in confusion. He looked at the baby again and sure enough he saw no signs of Fez anywhere but he still felt so confused. "What do you mean he's not the father?

Jackie bowed her head. "We never…we never slept together."

He thought immediately that she was lying to him so that he wouldn't go back and tell Fez but when he looked at her closely he saw that she was ashamed. It was written all over her face. He was almost relieved it wasn't Fez's kid. If the relationship with him was torture, him actually having a kid with Jackie was way worse but then the other side of that cold reality started to set in and his stomach started to twist in knots. Jackie had a kid and it didn't belong to Fez and since he and her hadn't had sex well over two years it certainly wasn't his.

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I know this isn't what some of you were expecting but please hang in there. I hope to have another chapter up in the next few days. Please review. All feedback is most welcome. Thanks for reading.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Still do not own That 70's Show or any of it's characters.

Thank you to all of you who have read this story so far. Also thank you to those of you who have reviewed, followed and made it a favorite it as well. I appreciate you so much.

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Chapter 3

Hyde suddenly felt his throat go dry and he tried to swallow as he tried to fully comprehend what he'd just been told. A million thoughts flooded his mind but the most obvious question seemed to be trapped in his throat. As he gathered himself to ask, all he could do is pray that the answer wouldn't destroy him. "So…who is the father?" he finally asked as the one continuous thought kept repeating in his head 'Please don't be Kelso's…please don't be Kelso's.

Jackie noticed the uneasy look on his face and she had known him well enough to know exactly what he was thinking. She wasn't about to fill him in her on her life up through now but she didn't want to add any more fuel to the fire either. "That really doesn't matter and I really don't want to discuss this right now." She could see him starting to tense up so she continued "But don't worry it's not anyone you know.".

"I wasn't…I wasn't worried."

Jackie tilted her head and gave him a look that let him know that she knew better. "Look as much fun as this has been I need to head home. It's his nap time and he's going to get cranky soon so I'm gonna go."

"Well can I at least ask what his name is?" Hyde said as he took in the baby once again. The kid seemed okay as far as babies go. He was pretty quiet so far, which was a miracle considering he was Jackie's. Kids weren't really his thing he supposed but truth was he hadn't really been around babies since he was one.

"His name is Julian." Jackie smiled down proudly at her son. "I guess we'll be getting out of your hair now so you can get on with the rest of your day." she said as she gathered her belongings to leave.

Hyde started to panic. He knew if let her walk out the door he would probably never see her again and even though he knew they would both be fine if that happened he wasn't okay with her leaving without him knowing if she at least had a decent life here. And even though it seemed far-fetched, maybe they could find a way to at least salvage some kind of friendship since they were both a little older now and possibly more mature. Plus Hyde didn't really know anyone else in the city and he felt like this could be a chance to undo some of the damage done over the last few years if they could put the past behind them. "I could run you home if you like. That way you wouldn't have to take the bus." Hyde quickly stated.

"No it's fine we're used to taking the bus." Jackie wasn't quite sure she wanted him to know where she was staying. She most definitely didn't think she wanted him in her life again even if she could tell he was different somehow than she last remembered. She had her son to think about and Steven had a history of being hot one day and cold the next and she didn't need unstable people around them especially since she wasn't the most stable herself at the moment. That was also another thing she didn't really want him to be aware of as well. Her life here in Minneapolis had been a struggle. When she first arrived she found a job at a local TV station as a production assistant but when the head producer found out she was pregnant he didn't feel comfortable with her working there since the job was extremely demanding and required physical labor at times so she was let go after about 2 months. She tried to find something suited to her liking but in the end all she could find was a job as waitress in a diner near her apartment. It certainly wasn't the glamorous life she always imagined for herself but she had a child to support and bills to pay.

"Come on Jackie It's really not that big a deal. I'm sure you'd rather not wait in the rain with your kid and try to juggle your bags again. I promise to be on my best behavior and if not I'm sure my shins will pay the price." he said with a slight grin trying to lighten the mood.

Jackie sighed and as much as she hated to need his help she knew he was right. "Fine. I'll take you up on your offer but no funny business." she warned.

The drive from the apartment was relatively quiet with the exception of Jackie giving directions to Hyde along the way. Both of them were uneasy and trying not to show it. Hyde tried to stay focused on the road but his thoughts were on how he could get her to feel at ease enough for them to be around each other again but he knew he had a huge uphill battle. He also wondered what he would find once he got there. Since Jackie hadn't told him the story with her son's father he didn't know whether to expect their reunion to have a third, well technically fourth, member. Meanwhile Jackie was on the other side of the car trying to figure out a way to make sure the ride ended with them going back to their separate lives but she could tell by the way Hyde had been acting that he was probably going to make it difficult to do but he would just have to understand.

The quietness was starting to get to Hyde. Jackie was never usually this quiet unless she was thinking and most the time that was even done out loud. He decided to break the silence. "So if you don't mind me asking, why were you taking a bus? What happened to your car?"

"I sold it. I needed the money at the time and public transportation is pretty reliable in the city so I figured I could do without it."

"Oh well uh that makes sense I suppose." replied Hyde.

"Yeah."

Hyde decided not to pursue the conversation any further since it was apparent Jackie was in no mood to talk so back to silence it was. He kept sneaking in an occasional glance every so often. He noticed she was still as beautiful as ever, probably more so actually. She was a little fuller than he last saw her but it suited her well. He assumed that was due to her pregnancy. Any additional weight had gone to ALL the right places. He quickly shook his head as if to erase those thoughts and redirected his attention back to the road and continued driving.

When they arrived at her apartment building, Hyde took a look at the neighborhood. It certainly wasn't what he was expecting. It wasn't a slum but it certainly wasn't a place that the Jackie Burkhardt he knew would live. He began to grab the groceries out of the car. 'Great now he's coming inside' thought Jackie. Jackie nervously shifted the now sleeping Julian in her arms and directed them inside. Once they entered the apartment Hyde looked around at the place. It wasn't very big at all but it was clean and nicely decorated. The living room and kitchen were connected with a small eating area to the side. There was a hallway which lead to the rest of the house which Hyde assumed lead to the bathroom and bedrooms. Jackie had gone back there to put the baby down in his crib. He put the groceries on the kitchen counter and then headed back into the living room. He quietly scanned the room for pictures to try and see if there was any indication of who Julian's father might be and if he was still currently in the picture however he only saw some of the baby, Jackie or of them both. There was no man in any of them. Hyde took a deep breath and decided to sit on the couch and wait.

Meanwhile in Julian's bedroom, Jackie laid the baby down in his crib to finish napping. She traced her fingers over his face and leaned down to kiss his chubby cheeks. She loved her son more than anything in the world. Even though he didn't arrive under conventional circumstances, he was the best thing that ever happened to her and she was determined to make sure he always knew that. She wanted to make sure he never had to feel like she felt growing up, even if that meant she had to sacrifice some of her own dreams to do so.

Jackie turned off the light and headed back down the hallway. When she got to the living room she saw Hyde sitting on the couch. She could tell he was deep in thought. She finally took a second to get a good look at him since she was too much in shock earlier. He had on a pair of jeans and a band t-shirt like usual but he appeared slightly more rugged, more mature even and definitely more hot. 'Get those thoughts out of your head right now you idiot! This is still the same dumbass that made you miserable two years ago' Jackie thought to herself. She knew right then she had to get him out of her house and out of her life as soon as possible.

Hyde finally noticed her come in the room and stood up. "Hey. Is the little guy still sleeping?" he asked trying to start up another conversation.

"Yeah he is. Steven listen, I appreciate you bringing us home but I really think that..". The phone in the kitchen rang suddenly interrupting their conversation. She walked over to answer the phone leaving Hyde standing in the living room. "Hello?"

"Hey Jackie where are you? You were supposed to be here at 1:00." said the voice on the other end of the phone.

"Carol what do you mean where am I? I told Beth that I needed today off because my sitter was going out of town today and tomorrow. She said she would find someone to cover for me today and I'm already off tomorrow." Jackie started pacing back and forth becoming worried.

"I don't know what happened honey but Martin is pissed. Your name is still on the schedule and it's really busy right now. " Carol replied. "Hold on honey, I'll let Martin know what you said."

Jackie could hear her shouting the information to her boss in the background. She could not afford to have any more problems with her job right now. She was a pretty reliable worker for the most part but she had to take off a few times here and there due to the baby both during and after her pregnancy and her boss had not been gracious about it. Most of the other women who worked there were older and either had no children or had kids who were past the baby stage. She could hear Carol come back to the phone as she hoped for the best.

"He said no one said anything about you being off today and if you don't get down here you can forget about coming back to work at all. I'm sorry honey."

"What am I going to do? Carol I don't have a sitter and I can't afford to lose this job." Jackie was in a panic by this point. She was barely making ends meet as it was and losing her job would be detrimental right now. "Carol just tell Martin I'll be there. Just give me an hour to figure something out…yeah…okay…bye." Jackie had no idea how she was going to make it happen but she had to at least try.

Hyde had overheard the whole conversation. He looked over at Jackie who was in tears by that point. When he heard her saying how much she needed her job he realized just how severe her situation really was. He got up and walked to the kitchen as Jackie tried to turn away so he didn't see her crying. Hyde always had become a softie for her when she was crying and this time was no different. He cleared his throat and spoke "Hey Jackie, I could watch him if you want.".

"I'm sorry what?"

"I said I could watch him for you. I kinda overheard you on the phone and it really sounds like your needed down at work and I'm not really do anything for the rest of the day." Hyde did his best to not make it seem like it was a big deal. He knew from the past that Jackie did not like people feeling sorry for her in embarrassing situations.

"I can't ask you to do that. You've already done so much for us today. I'll just have to try to figure something out."

"Jackie it's really no big deal. Like I said before I'm free right now."

She weighed her options. Jackie figured maybe she could ask one of her neighbors but other than her sitter, Mrs. Henderson, she really didn't know anyone else. She saw some of them in passing of course and she didn't really want to entrust her kid to a complete stranger but then again could she trust Hyde to watch her son either? "Have you ever even babysat before?" she questioned.

"Well no but I did have to babysit Forman, Kelso and Fez over the years. I'm sure it can't be much harder than that." Hyde amused.

Jackie finally resigned to the fact that she really didn't have much of a choice at this point. She felt like she was caught between a rock and a hard place. After a few seconds she finally made a decision. "Alright you can babysit. I'm gonna go get dressed and get everything ready for you." She turned and walked to her room and quickly threw on her uniform. She then ran into Julian's room and grabbed the essentials that Hyde would need for the day and put them in the diaper bag. She hurriedly wrote down some notes on how to take care of the baby and any other information he might need. Never in her wildest dreams would she believe her day would turn out like this. Not only had she run into her ex-boyfriend who had saved her from a fall, he was now in her apartment about to babysit her child. The child she had with another man.

She walked back to living room and handed Hyde a diaper bag and a piece of paper. "Here's his diaper bag. I put some diapers, wipes, powder and a change of clothes in there should you need them. He has bottles already made in the fridge. When he wakes up give him a bottle. He usually gets his dinner around 5:30. The baby food is in the cabinet in the kitchen. Just heat it up for a few minutes first. You can give him another bottle after he eats and then one at bedtime, which is around eight. His pajamas are in the bag as well. I wrote all the instructions down on the paper as well as the address and phone number at my job. If you get hungry there's food in the fridge. Help yourself to anything you'd like. I get off at nine and my job is only about 15 minutes from here and I'll be right home afterwards."

Hyde looked at the paper and then back at Jackie. "Cool I think I got it. I guess we'll uh see you when you get off."

"Okay great. Oh and Steven? If you harm one hair on my little angel's head they'll be fishing your parts out of each one of the Great Lakes." Jackie threatened on her way out the door.

Hyde chuckled. There was the Jackie he remembered. He sat back down on the couch and looked around the living room some more. He grabbed a Cosmo magazine but decided he'd rather be caught dead than read one of Jackie's lady mags. He put the Cosmo back on the table and got up to turn on the TV. As soon as he was about to sit back down he heard the baby start to stir. He grabbed the diaper bag and headed into the room and saw the baby rubbing his eyes. Hyde stood over the crib and looked down. "Are you waking up little man? Let's break you out of these bars" he said lifting Julian up out of the crib and into his arms. All of a sudden a horrible smell assaulted his nostrils and he realized it was time for diaper duty. Hyde cringed as he placed the baby on his changing table and started to remove the dirty diaper. "Did your mom tell you to set me up before she left cause that's the kind of thing she would do." he joked. Julian looked back up at him a smiled. "You would think that was funny." Hyde finished changing the baby and headed into the kitchen. He grabbed a bottle from the fridge and then grabbed a soda for himself. He sat back down on the couch and placed Julian right next to him and handed him his bottle. "Well little man I guess it's just you and me." Hyde said as they both sat back and enjoyed their beverages.

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Thank you for reading. If you have a moment to review, I sincerely appreciate all feedback. I hope to have another chapter up soon.


	4. Chapter 4

This chapter was a bit of a struggle for me. I didn't want it to be a huge blow out but enough to be said to gain some understanding of all that's happened. I hope I did okay by it. I also want to say thank you to those of you who have reviewed, followed and/or made it a favorite. This is my first time writing any kind of story since college many years ago. I appreciate your kind words and support.

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Chapter 4

It had been an exhausting day at the diner. No matter how fast the food was being served, the crowd just never seemed to die down. Jackie was spent. She hung up her apron, grabbed her purse and a container of food then prepared to head out however her coworker Carol stopped her.

"I just want to say I'm sorry about the mix-up with your schedule but we really needed you tonight. We would have drowned without you."

"It's fine. It worked out in the end I suppose. I really needed the money and tips were pretty good on the day." Jackie sighed.

"Is everything okay with you? You seem to be a little down tonight."

"I'm just tired I guess. Today has been both physical and emotionally draining. I kinda ran into someone from my past that I wasn't expecting to see. Things between us weren't so great before I left home and now I found out he's living here." replied Jackie.

"Let me guess. Is this an ex?"

"Not just an ex. THE ex if you know what I mean."

Jackie hadn't really filled her coworkers in on much of her previous life. They all knew she was a single mom and she was from Wisconsin but other than that she never really said too much else however they could all tell she had been running from something in her past. When Jackie first started working at the diner, Carol thought she was one of the saddest young ladies she had ever seen. She was friendly and a decent worker however there was always such sorrow in here eyes. Carol figured some of it was due to her hormones from the pregnancy but she could tell there was a story behind it as well. However, after the birth of her son, Jackie's spirits seemed to be much better and she saw a much more determined young woman.

"Well Minneapolis is pretty big. Maybe you won't even run into him again." Carol said trying to console Jackie.

"That's going to be pretty hard to do when he's at my house babysitting Julian as we speak. I ran into him while I was out running errands downtown. He had given us a ride home and was at the house when you called. He volunteered to watch him and since I couldn't lose my job I had no other choice." Jackie answered still not fully able to comprehend the day's events.

"Wow. That was awfully nice of him."

"I know and that's the problem. I don't want him to be nice. I want him to go away but he literally has been a lifesaver all day and as much as I want to yell and scream for him to stay the hell out of my life he's making it impossible to do." Jackie said woefully.

"Is this guy your son's father?"

"No he's not. Long story short we dated for two years then things ended really badly between us. I stuck around for a while and tried to move on but it just wasn't working out the way I hoped and I ended up moving here. He didn't even know I had a child up until today. He's the guy who broke my heart and I don't think I ever fully recovered from our relationship as much as I tried. When I moved away, I did my best to put everything behind me. I finally felt like I was making progress and then he shows up out of nowhere. I can't let him back into my life again. I have to protect my son and I can't handle another round of war with Steven Hyde. The stakes are too high now." Jackie knew her heart wouldn't be able to withstand another beating like the one she was previously dealt.

"Well it sounds like you've made up your mind but honey maybe your looking at this the wrong way. Maybe this is an opportunity for you to clear the air with him so you heart can finally be free of the pain you've been carrying around. You might've just been given the opportunity to get some closure on your past and possibly even a fresh start. I think you need to sit down with this guy and finally tell him all the things you were holding inside and then after you finishing yelling and screaming or whatever, forgive him."

"But what if I don't want to forgive him? What if I just want to forget him?" questioned Jackie.

"Sweetie that's entirely up to you but I will tell you this. Forgiving someone is not for them. It's something you do for you so you can let go of all the hurtful things that have been weighing you down. I guarantee if you do it and mean it you will feel a whole lot better." and with that Carol patted Jackie on the shoulder, grabbed her keys and headed out the door leaving her to stand there and think about all that she had been told.

As Jackie headed back home she was still so unsure of what to do about Hyde. Everything in her gut told her to run like hell but everything Carol said seemed to make so much sense. She had been searching for some sense of peace over the last two years. Could this really be a chance for that to happen or was she just setting herself up for more disappointment? Jackie felt so confused. As much as she wanted to think it was possible she knew her life didn't seem to operate that way. Her life was set up in a way where most of the people who you let in seemed to find or invent new ways to let you down. She just couldn't take the chance. She made up her mind that once she got home she would thank Steven for his help on today then let him know that it would be best if they didn't see each other again and she'd appreciate if he didn't tell the others where she was as well. When she moved here she wanted to forget about everyone and until today that was the plan. Why should she stray from it just because she saw him and he had been so wonderful and generous to her and her son today? And so what if he still smelled amazing and looked incredible, especially since he shaved that horrible mustache. "Cut it out Jackie! You know better than that. " she said out loud chastising herself.

After an introspective walk, she finally made it home and opened the door quietly. As she walked into the living room, the site before her took her breath away. Hyde was lying on his back on the couch while Julian lay on his chest with his bottle in his mouth as they both slept. The scene before her was one she always imagined during her relationship with Steven. She would come home from a long day to find her baby sleeping peacefully with Daddy. This would have been a dream come true except for the fact that Steven wasn't Julian's father and his real one would probably never hold him while he slept. Instead of being a heartwarming moment, it was suddenly just too much for Jackie to handle as the tears began to flow. She put down her belongings and retreated to the bathroom where she quietly sobbed.

Fifteen minutes later Jackie finally pulled herself together and rinsed off her face. Her eyes were still slightly red and puffy but there was nothing she could do about that. She made her way back to the living room and carefully bent down to pick Julian up from Hyde's arms so as not to awake him.

Hyde began to stir from his sleep once he felt the baby move. He opened his eyes and saw that it was just Jackie lifting up Julian. "I didn't realize I fell asleep. He seemed a bit restless at bedtime so I figured I'd keep him out here with me till he fell asleep and then put him in his crib but I guess we both dozed off. Sorry about that."

"Oh no it's fine. I'm just going to go put him down in his crib. I'll be back." Jackie said as she carried the sleeping infant down the hall.

Hyde sat up fully and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He guessed he was more tired than he realized. His evening spent with Julian had gone fairly uneventful. The baby was not much trouble at all. Hyde found him to be kind of cool actually. He didn't fuss much and was fairly happy little guy. He could tell Jackie had done a great job with him so far. That didn't surprise him though. He knew that once Jackie had a child she would do a much better job than both of her parents. She had always been great at taking care of the people she loved including him.

As she lay her son down in his crib, Jackie was still unsure of what to do about the situation waiting for her back in her living room. She was so sure of her plan on the way home but seeing Steven with her little boy asleep on his chest was causing major doubts. It seemed to provide the slight glimmer of hope that perhaps this was the time to set things straight between them. She didn't have to let him all the way back in her life but they could start small and work on at least being amicable. Jackie headed back to the living room where she saw a groggy Steven sitting on the couch.

Hyde noticed her standing there and stood up and walked over to her "Hey. Did he stay asleep?"

"Yeah he did. How did you make out tonight? Did he give you any trouble?"

"No he wasn't any trouble at all. We hung out. I drank soda and him formula, we watched some TV, you know regular guy stuff." Hyde answered.

"I brought home a plate for you from work. It's meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn. It's not Mrs. Forman's but it's pretty good."

"Oh uh thanks." Hyde was pretty hungry. He hadn't eaten since lunch and he didn't feel right eating Jackie's food in the fridge.

Jackie nodded and took a deep breath "Listen Steven, I know didn't say it earlier but thank you for everything you did for Julian and I today. I honestly don't know what I would've done without you tonight."

"It's cool Jackie. It's not a big deal."

"Yes it is a big deal. I know I was being short with you earlier and I want to apologize for that. I was thinking that if you have a little time right now maybe we can sort out a few things." Hyde nodded and Jackie led the way back over to the couch and the both sat down. "Steven I'm really hoping that we can both come to a mutual understanding but one thing I won't do is get into a knock down drag out fight with you. The moment it starts to get nasty I'm shutting this down because I won't have it around my son. Are you alright with that?"

"Yeah that's cool." Hyde answered with his statement sounding more Zen than he intended and he noticed Jackie starting to get a look of disappointment on her face. "I didn't mean it like that. I just mean that I'm fine with it. I was hoping that we got a chance to talk. I don't want to fight with you either." he said with complete sincerity.

"Good. Let me just say that I didn't plan to have this discussion tonight. My plan was to come home tonight, say thank you and then tell you that it was probably best that we don't see each other again but I got to thinking and realized that I don't want to keep running from my past anymore. I need to confront it head on so that's what I want to do. I could tell that you wanted to talk earlier but I wasn't ready however after you did so much for me I feel like you've earned a few answers. So before I start I just want to let you know that what I'm about say is extremely difficult for me to talk about so it would be helpful if you could just let me get it all out before you ask me any questions." Jackie knew this was going to be difficult for them both.

Deciding to accept her terms, Hyde nodded his head again.

They had so much bad history and missing gaps that Jackie didn't know where to begin. She sighed and figured it was best to maybe not rehash the whole Chicago incident just yet. That would definitely make things heated. "Alright so I guess I'll start with after the New Year came in and the gang was all together for the last time. It was so great being back with everyone and for the first time in a long time, that night I was happy. The New Year seemed to be off to a great start. Well Fez decided that since we had our first kiss that day that maybe we could try a few other things. We snuck back down to the basement. He started to kiss me and all of a sudden I froze. I tried to shake it off and tell him to continue but I couldn't get past it. As much as I wanted to blame it on the champagne I knew it was something else. Being down there with him didn't feel right. All these memories started to flood my mind and it felt like I was tainting them by being there with him as his girlfriend. Fez finally asked me what was wrong and I told him that I was sorry but I think we made a mistake. I told him that we were better off as friends. He asked me if it had anything to do with you and I told him no that we were just too great of friends to be together but I knew he saw past my lie. The truth was that it did have everything to do with you. I realized that I never fully got past our relationship and being with Fez felt like a betrayal. I knew that I wasn't doing anything wrong but it felt that way and that made me so angry. I didn't owe you anything especially after the way you were treating me at the time. Well we went back to the party and announced that we were no longer seeing each other. I looked over to you to see if you at least felt some type of relief and you just sat there with your arms crossed and 'I told you so' look on your face. I felt like such an idiot."

Hyde bowed his head a little as he started to feel a little guilty because the truth was that he was extremely relieved at the time but he wasn't about to give her the satisfaction of seeing it. What he planned to offer her was a whole list of new burns instead. He looked back up at her and nodded his head for her to continue.

"So the next day, I decided I was done with the whole situation. I was determined to get you out of my system. Initially I thought that I could do that with Fez but I realized that I was using him and I cared way too much about him to do that. He didn't deserve it. Later that night, somehow I ended up at the bar where Bud used to work. I just wanted to drink everything away till I felt numb. Well about three drinks later this guy sat down next to me and started talking to me. I could tell he was a few years older than me and I had never seen him around town so I figure what the heck, I'll chat it up with him. Turns out he was just passing thru town on his way to New Mexico. He had stopped in Point Place to rest for the night and decided to have a drink. Well a few more drinks later and I ended up dancing with him. As the night grew on and we got to drinking more all I could think of is how this could be the perfect opportunity to finally move past everything. There wouldn't be any feelings involved and could finally get any remaining traces of last year out of my system. We ended up back at his hotel and everything went as I'd hoped. When I finally woke up in the morning, he was already gone. It really didn't bother me at the time because if I had woken up first I was planning to do the same thing. Everything would've been fine and dandy except when a few weeks later I realized my period was late. You can't even imagine how much of a panic I was in at that moment. I waited about another week before finally going to the doctor to confirm my suspicions. I was pregnant. And to make matters worse, I was pregnant by a man whose last name I still don't even know. I literally cried for a whole week straight before deciding that the only option for me was to leave town. There was no way I could face you or anyone else. I was so embarrassed. I felt like such a tramp. Don't get me wrong, at first I thought about not keeping my baby but I realized that would make me no better than my own mother who tossed her own child aside when she didn't want to be bothered. I packed my bags and drove until I got tired and ended up here. I worked at a TV station for a while but they let me go because I was pregnant. After being dead broke I found my current job. I had my son a few months later and basically here I am."

Jackie had tears streaming own her face at this point. She had never told anyone the full story of how she became pregnant. It wasn't her finest moment and being a single mom already cast a shadow over her. She didn't feel the need to add to the stigma.

After listening to her story, Hyde had never felt so ashamed of himself. He knew that Jackie did the right thing by leaving town. The guy who he was before she left would've definitely had quite a few harsh words for her situation. All the anger and bitterness would've reared its ugly head again because he selfishly would've felt hurt by her actions. He was feeling hurt now but not for himself, for Jackie. He only felt guilt and shame for himself. He was breathing slowly and deeply and he could barely look Jackie in the eye.

Jackie saw a look of regret on his face and continued speaking. "Listen, Steven I didn't tell you all this to make you feel guilty or blame you for anything. I just wanted you to know what happened. I don't regret any of it because that would mean I regret my son and I have to tell you that he is the best thing that's ever happened to me. I thank God every day for him. He's so amazing and I feel so lucky that he's mine. I just hope that when he's old enough to understand that he forgives me for what I did. That because of my carelessness he'll never have the chance to know his father."

Hyde finally lifted his head. "Jackie there's nothing to forgive. You were young had a lapse in judgment. He's lucky to have you as a mom. And you're right, he is an amazing kid."

"Thank you Steven that means a lot coming from you. So…I'm sure you have a few questions."

"Yeah I suppose I do." Hyde paused trying think of where to begin. "Did you ever try to find his father before leaving?" Hyde asked.

"I went back to the bar to see if one of the bartenders remembered anything but that turned out to be a wash. I only knew his first name, Kyle, and that he was from Indiana but other than that I don't know or remember much else."

"I see…Now I get why you left town the way you did having heard your side of things. Do your parents at least know where you are?" Hyde was curious to know.

"I visited my dad before I left and told him I was leaving but not why. I sent both him and my mom a postcard when I arrived here but I haven't heard from either of them since. Just as well I guess." Jackie wiped the few remaining tears from her eyes.

"I didn't mean to make you bring all this up. It's just that when I saw you today I wanted…I wanted to make sure you were doing okay I guess."

Jackie understood and was grateful that he still cared enough to check on her. When they were on good terms that's the one thing she could count on from him. "I'm doing fine. It's not perfect but I make due for now. I'll be honest with you. I had no clue about what to expect from pregnancy or having and raising a baby when I moved here. After about living here for a month I met the sweetest old lady, Mrs. Henderson. I think she kinda reminded me of Mrs. Forman and I sort of got attached to her. She's been so helpful with Julian. She taught me how to cook and what to do when I came home with the baby and now she even watches him while I work. I probably wouldn't have survived without her."

"I'm glad you had someone there for you Jackie." he said genuinely. There were so many questions he wanted to ask but he didn't want to overwhelm her plus it was getting late. "I'm sure there's a lot more for us to talk about but it's getting late and I should probably be going now. I'm sure you've had a long day." He stood to his feet and headed to the kitchen to grab his plate from the table.

Jackie got up from the couch and headed over to walk him out. "Again I appreciate all that you've done today and thank you for listening and not judging me as well. It means a lot to me."

"Hey Jackie do you think that maybe we could do this again sometime? You know the whole being civil to each other and not ripping one another to shreds." Hyde said playfully.

"I'd like that but if we're going to be friends I need to go slow with it. I still have a long way to go with being able to trust again."

"I understand and I'm cool with that. I wrote my number and address down in the kitchen. If you need anything or feel chatty give me call." Hyde said thoughtfully.

"Steven Hyde actually is making an offer for me to call and chat. I never thought I'd see the day." Jackie laughed.

"Well don't get too used to it. It's only good for one phone call." He joked. "Well uh goodnight. I'll see you around I guess." He turned and headed out the door.

"Oh and Steven, please don't mention to the others that I'm here just yet. I'm not really ready to see or talk to anyone right now. Possibly at some point but I can't handle it at the moment.

He nodded and turned back down the hall. When he got to his car he sat there for a moment finally taking in the day's events. He replayed her story in his mind and his stomach started to churn and he started to sweat. The guilt he was feeling was too much and he felt like he couldn't breathe. He got out the car and leaned against the door. He knew that he had been terrible to Jackie while he was with Sam and the months that followed. When she left, no one had really ever blamed him for her leaving but he knew deep down that he was a contributing factor. He didn't fully understand the effect of his cruelty towards her until now. He had finally broken her resolve. He pulled himself together and got back in the car finally. He looked at her building once again and decided at that moment he would do whatever it took to make it up to her and her son.

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Thank you for reading and as always feedback is appreciated and welcome. =)


	5. Chapter 5

Merry Christmas everyone! Again I would like to thank all of you who have read, followed, favorited and reviewed.

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Chapter 5

July 28, 1981

A few days had past since the talk in her apartment and Jackie was currently at work. She had been in a much better mood over the past few days and she knew it was due to how things had gone with Hyde. She felt like a load had been lifted from her shoulders where he was concerned. Things weren't completely settled between them as they still had a lot of ground to cover but this was a healthy beginning.

Carol had noticed the change in Jackie's mood as well. She had been slightly worried about her since that night in the dinner when Jackie had seemed so troubled. Jackie made her way into the back room to take her break and it was the perfect time for her to see how things had gone the other night. "Hey honey. How's it going? You seemed to be doing much better today." she stated.

"Yeah I'm much better thanks and thank you for your advice the other day. I went home and was actually able to talk to my ex about a few things." replied Jackie.

"So I take it went well?" Carol asked.

"It did, much better than I expected actually. We actually had a conversation instead of one of our usual knock down, drag out fights. There's still a lot that we didn't discuss but it was a good start if we're going to try to be friendly to one another." Jackie knew that her and Steven hadn't fully gotten to the heart of their issues such as their failed relationship or his treatment of her before and after Chicago but at least as of now she no longer felt that sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach at the thought of him.

"So you're planning to see him again?"

"Well we didn't really plan anything. I told him I wanted to take the whole friendship thing slow. I can see that he's different from the last time I saw him and I haven't decided if that's a good thing or bad thing yet." Hyde had always been different when it was just the two of them alone. Well at least he was before the end of their relationship but this was different. He seemed more understanding and more mature. Jackie thought that maybe not having the gang around had something to do with that but none the less she still wasn't about to forget the other side that he was capable of displaying, the one she knew before she left Point Place. "I figure it's best that I don't have any expectations at all when it comes to having a friendship with him that way I can't be disappointed if it falls apart." she stated calmly.

"Oh honey that's no way to live. People are people and sometimes they will let us down just as we let people down I'm sure but there's nothing wrong with expecting and requiring the best from people. Just make sure that you give as good as you get." Carol smiled and walked out of the break room leaving Jackie alone with her thoughts.

A few hours had past and it was almost the end of the lunch rush. Jackie had about an hour left before the end of her shift. As she walked up to her next table she was greeted with an unexpected customer. "Steven? What are you doing here?"

"Well the meatloaf from the other say was pretty decent so I came to see what else is good on the menu?" Hyde said as he grinned up at her.

"Oh um okay. How did you find out where I work?" she said puzzled.

"You wrote it down the other night when I babysat." he replied.

"Oh yeah I forgot. Well then, what can I get you?" and with that Jackie went back into work mode and took his order. She brought out his food once it was ready and went back to serving the other tables. Every now and then she would glance over to where Hyde was sitting. He had always been the kind of guy that didn't rely on needing a crowd of people around him to make him happy. Of course he always enjoyed hanging with the gang but he had always managed to be just as content when he was alone. However today, Jackie noticed a look of what she thought to be loneliness in his eyes. Could it be possible that the almighty Steven Hyde had finally realized that being an island wasn't all its cracked up to be?

Hyde sat at his table alone with his food, splitting his focus between eating and watching Jackie work. He thought she was pretty good at her job but by no means should a girl like her be working in a diner. Jackie Burkhart was born and raised to be someone who the world took notice of but desperate times called for desperate measures he supposed. He had to admit that even in a waitress uniform she was still the most beautiful woman in the place.

He took another bite of his cheeseburger and smiled. Jackie had the cook prepare it just the way he liked, cooked medium with cheese on top of the burger and pickles and onions on the bottom. After all this time she still remembered the smallest details about him. Hyde wasn't sure at first whether he should come see her today. He knew that she wanted their progress to go slowly and he had hoped that she wasn't feeling like he was intruding. When Jackie came over to the table to bring the bill, he decided to see if she was still in the same frame of mind as he left her the other night. "So uh Jackie, I hope you don't mind me stopping by here today. I was hungry and even though I wasn't sure you'd be here I figure this would be safer than dropping by your house unannounced and I don't know your phone number to give you a call."

"It's fine Steven. You are allowed to eat wherever you want." she said rather rudely as Hyde's face fell slightly but she quickly continued "However I'm just surprised you trusted me enough not to spit in your food." she said as she flashed one of her classic sneaky grins. Immediately Hyde looked down at his plate. He and Jackie both laughed easing some of the awkwardness. "No seriously Steven it's nice of you to drop by." she told him genuinely.

They stared at each other a little longer than they intended before Hyde decided to speak up. "So yeah…cool. How's the little guy? We had a pretty decent time the other night which was surprising considering he can't even walk or talk."

"He's great. His at the sitter's now until I get off which is in about 15 minutes. If you want to wait around till I get off you come by and see him." she suggested.

"Uh sure why not? Hyde was really glad that Jackie had invited him to come by again. Truth was other than the store he had nothing else going on in his life right now. Back home he had his friends and other acquaintances to keep him occupied if he got bored with being by himself but he hadn't really met any in his new city other than the contractors working on the store and he preferred to keep that relationship professional.

"Okay great. I'm gonna finish up here and be out in about 15-20 minutes." Jackie walked back to her other tables to finish closing out her tabs. Once she was done she headed to the break room where she ran into Carol again.

"So it looks like you have a new friend out there?"

"Who me? I don't think so. Who are you talking about" Jackie said completely unaware of what Carol meant.

"The cute rugged loner looking guy with the curly hair and t-shirt, you were pretty friendly with him." Carol teased.

"Oh him? That's my ex I was telling you about. He just kinda dropped by for lunch." Jackie told her.

"Ooooooh the ex. I get it."

"What do you mean?" asked Jackie.

"Nothing bad. He was staring at you while you worked but not in a creepy way. But I mean he's not stalking you right?" said Carol wondering if she should become worried.

"Oh no no no. It's nothing like that. He just came to see how I was doing. I think he might be a little homesick. I doubt he's made any friends here yet."

"Well then I hope you got tipped extra for that."

Jackie just laughed as she grabbed her purse and headed back to Hyde's table. "Are you ready?

"Yeah my car's right across the street." Hyde was grateful that Jackie was giving him a chance to be a friend. He knew very well that if the roles had been reversed in their situation, he wouldn't be so quick to accept the olive branch.

Hyde and Jackie drove straight to her apartment building. When they arrived Jackie made her way to the 2nd floor to her neighbor and babysitter, Mrs. Henderson's. Jackie knocked on the door and heard a response on the other side telling her to come inside. They made their way inside the living room where Mrs. Henderson was with Julian who was crawling around the floor with his toys. "How's my baby boy today?" Jackie said bending down to pick up the baby,

"He was very good as always." replied Mrs. Henderson. She suddenly took notice of Hyde who was standing next to Jackie. "I didn't realize we have a visitor. Who's this handsome young man?"

Hyde extended his hand towards the older woman "Hi I'm Hyde. Nice to meet you."

"Mrs. Henderson this is Steven Hyde. We grew up together back in Point Place." answered Jackie not wanting to go in full detail about their complicated relationship.

"Well its nice to meet you as well young man. Are you visiting?" Mrs. Henderson had never seen or heard Jackie talk much about her life back home. She knew that her parents weren't around and that she had come to Minneapolis to make a life for her and her baby but not much else.

"No I just moved here last month. I'm opening a store downtown." Hyde answered.

Jackie sat Julian back down on the floor. "I'm going to go pack up his bag. I'll be back in a few." She headed to the guest room to gather the baby's things.

"Well Hyde it's very nice of you to come by and see Jackie. She doesn't talk about home much and other than Julian and me she doesn't really socialize with anyone. A beautiful young woman like that needs more friends than a baby and an old woman." She smiled. "I'll be right back. I'm going to go see if she needs some help" She stood and walked down the hallway to check on Jackie.

Hyde watched her retreat down the hall. It had bothered him a little that Jackie only referred to him as someone she grew up with but then he relaxed once he was told she hadn't mentioned her previous life much. He figured that was probably better than the ugly truth she could have told the older woman about him.

On the other side of the room, Julian, who was crawling on the floor looked over and saw Hyde. The baby smiled at him and started clapping his little hands in excitement.

"Hey little guy. How's it going?" Hyde bent down and picked up one of the toys on the floor and held it out for Julian. Julian started to crawl and stopped when he reached the coffee table. He pulled himself up and stood for about two seconds. Mrs. Henderson, who had returned back to the living room saw what was happening, quickly realized this was a milestone moment in the infant's life and shrieked in surprise startling the baby and unintentionally causing Julian to get scared. He then fell and bumped his head on the table. Julian started screaming as Hyde picked him up right away.

At the same time Jackie was also walking back into the room. From her viewpoint all she could see and hear was Hyde bending down in front of Julian followed by a thud then him screaming. As soon as she heard her child she saw red immediately. She quickly ran over and snatched her son from Hyde. "What the hell did you do to my son?" she yelled.

"Jackie I.." Hyde tried to explain but was immediately cut off.

"You can't go two full days with wrecking something. I should've known better than to let you anywhere neat my son. Look at his head! He's getting a bruise. You know what Steven just we were perfectly fine before you showed up. Just get out!" Jackie exploded on Hyde.

Mrs. Henderson who had witnessed the whole scene tried to help Hyde who was staring at Jackie wide-eyed. "Dear it was an accident. He..."

"No he needs to leave." she said continuing to try to calm the baby.

"It's okay Mrs. Henderson, I'll be going now. Take care." and with that Hyde walked out of the apartment. He expected that Jackie still had some residual hidden anger towards him that it would show up at some point but he never expected to see it this soon. He figured that he probably just blew his final chance with Jackie and this time it wasn't even his fault. He got back into the El Camino and drove off defeated.

Back in the apartment, Jackie was still furious as she treated Julian's bump on his head. Mrs. Henderson went to the kitchen and grabbed some ice and handed it to Jackie. "Wow. I've never seen you like that. I think you were extremely unfair to that young man. You really didn't see what happened."

"I saw my son screaming his little lungs out with a knot on his head. That's enough. You don't know Steven. You don't know what he's capable of. He almost destroyed me before I left Point Place. I gave him my heart and he gave it back in shreds. I just need him to stay away from us." Jackie said revealing some of their past history.

"I don't know what happened before with Hyde but I know what happened tonight. Julian was happy to see that young man. He started to crawl over to him and then, for the first time, he pulled himself up and stood. Jackie your baby was standing on his own. Well I just got so excited at what was going on I shouted and startled him. That's when Julian fell. Hyde was just trying to console him." Mrs. Henderson explained hoping that Jackie would calm down.

Jackie's whole demeanor changed in an instant "My baby stood? He was standing?"

"Yes. I think he was trying to walk over to Hyde."

"Oh my God. I missed my son's first time standing." Jackie felt terrible. She had not only missed this major milestone she had ripped Hyde apart. "Not only that I was so mean to Steven when he was only trying to help Julian."

"Yes you were. Babies fall and accidents are going to happen. You can't attack people over it. Maybe you and Hyde have some bad history but he certainly didn't deserve to be attacked like that over an accident. However, I don't think that's what you were yelling about completely. It certainly was the trigger but your anger ran so deep." Mrs. Henderson continued "You haven't told me much about your past but I know that since you've been here you haven't had much to do with anyone from it. I understand that you've been hurt but you can't keep that inside. It will bubble up and spill out at unexpected times like tonight."

"God I know. It's just that so much has happened especially between me and Steven. When I found out he was in the city I was prepared to tell him to stay away from me but then he helped me out of a horrible situation the other night and we actually decided to try to be friends. I'm pretty sure I've just destroyed that now." Jackie said remorsefully.

"Well you should apologize to him at least."

"Yeah but he's as stubborn the day is long. I guess all I can do is try and if he doesn't accept it then so be it." Jackie figured it wouldn't make much of a difference if he disappeared from her life again since only four days prior she didn't think she would ever see him again.

July 29, 1981

The very next afternoon Jackie had decided to go apologize to Hyde. She asked Mrs. Henderson to watch Julian and caught the bus downtown. While on the way there she had no idea what she would say once she arrived. She still had mixed feelings about the situation. Part of her had been glad to finally let off some of the pressure that had built up concerning him but the other part of her hated that it was at a time when he didn't deserve it although she had been the recipient of many undeserved burns from him. She thought back to the things that both Carol and Mrs. Henderson had said about dealing with her past. She knew that she needed to sort things out and if she could find a way to do that with Steven it would only benefit her in the long run. She didn't want her son to grow up with a mother who lashed out emotionally. Even if he would never be a target of it, she didn't want him to be a witness to it either.

Jackie finally reached her stop and made her way down to the store. She walked in but didn't see Hyde anywhere. She finally went up to one of the contractors and asked for him. They pointed her to the back where his office was. As she reached the door she stopped when she heard voices coming from the other side. She couldn't make out what they were saying but she knew that one of them was a woman. Jackie immediately assumed Hyde was probably in his office about to partake in a little afternoon delight. In the past whenever Hyde was really hurt or mad at her he would go running to the nearest skank he could find and she figured things were no different now. Not that she should care of course. They weren't together and he was free to do as he wished. She turned to leave when suddenly the door opened and out walked Hyde and a woman. She was in her mid to late twenties with dirty blonde hair. She was bit rough around the edges and dressed like a biker chick. In other words, she was Steven's type.

Hyde stood there shocked seeing Jackie in his store considering what had happened the night before. He finally gathered himself and turned to the woman. "Thank you for your help today. I'll be in touch."

"No problem at all Hyde. I'll see you around." answered the woman right before leaving.

"Jackie, what are you doing here? I didn't expect to see you so soon or at all really."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you." said Jackie trying to appear indifferent.

"No you didn't. Our appointment was already over. Why don't you come inside" Hyde replied.

Jackie felt relieved that the woman was only there for business. She knew it was stupid to feel like that but some things never changed she supposed. She sat down in a chair in front of his desk while Hyde moved to sit behind the desk. She sighed and decided to get it over with. "Steven I just wanted to apologize for how I behaved last night. I found out after you left that you hadn't done anything to Julian and honestly I knew that you wouldn't hurt him on purpose especially after you took such great care of him for me the other day. When I heard him crying like that I panicked and some left over anxiety I had took over and before I knew it I was yelling at you unfairly. I'm sorry and I hope that you can forgive me."

"I'm not going to pretend what you said didn't bother me cause it did but I also know that we still have a lot of unresolved issues between us. As long as you know I would never do anything to hurt your son I can forgive you." Hyde answered honestly.

"Thank you. I already know that you wouldn't and I'm sorry that I said otherwise." she said feeling relieved that he accepted her apology.

"For the record that kid is lucky to have a mom who will fight for him like that. If Edna had been even the slightest bit as protective of me I'm sure things would've gone quite differently." Hyde really meant those words. Jackie was a great mom.

"Thanks. I still feel really bad about the whole incident. I want to make it up to you. How about you join Julian and I for dinner tomorrow night?"

"Are you going to cook?" Jackie nodded and smiled. "So first you yell at me then you're going to poison me?" Hyde said jokingly.

"Shut up!" she laughed. I'll have you know I can actually make quite a few meals now. Mrs. Henderson has been teaching me plus I picked up a few tricks working at the diner so there." She stuck out her tongue at him.

Hyde laughed. "Fine I'll be there. I'm going bring antacid for dessert though."

"Whatever. Just be there at 6:30." she said as she got up to leave.

"Will do". Hyde said as he walked her to the door. "Bye."

"Bye." she replied and with that she was out the door.

As he sat back down in his chair, Hyde felt grateful for another chance. He had been wracking his brain trying to figure out how he was going to get Jackie to talk to him again but couldn't come up with anything. He was also thankful that he was mature enough now to be able to accept her apology. The nineteen year old Hyde would've made her pay severely for her undeserved attack on him but he was no longer that guy and he was going to do his best to make sure she knew that.

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Thanks for reading. I'm going to try to bang out another chapter next week if I have time. Happy Holidays to you all!


	6. Chapter 6

Happy New Year everyone. Again I would like to thank all of you who have read, followed, favorited and reviewed. I didn't intend for this chapter to be this long. I'm not a fan of having a million flashbacks in a story and although I felt this chapter could have gone with a flashback to tell the story I chose not to because it would've made it longer. Anyway I hope it makes sense and I hope you enjoy.

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Chapter 6

July 30, 1981

It was a little before 6pm at the Burkhart residence. Julian was in his walker playing with his toys while roaming through living room and Jackie was in the kitchen trying to make sure everything for her dinner was perfect. The house was clean, the table was set and her roast was just about done. She just needed to freshen up and make sure the baby was changed and ready for dinner.

Jackie continued making sure everything was in order for the next 30 minutes. Her roast was now done and out of the oven, the rosemary potatoes and orange-glazed carrots looked-mouth watering. She was so proud of herself. She had come such a long way from the girl who used to turn brownies into hockey pucks.

The doorbell rang and Jackie took a quick glance at herself in the mirror. Perfect she thought to herself as she took a deep breath and then opened the door. There on the other side stood Hyde with two huge shopping bags and a potted plant in his hands. "Hi Steven, come in. You're right on time." she said as she moved to the side to let him inside.

"Hey. This is for you." he said as he handed her the plant.

"Steven, Oh my God, It's beautiful. Thank you." Jackie took the plant and placed it on the counter. "What's with the bags?" she asked.

"Oh I uh picked up few things for the little guy." Hyde replied shyly as he handed her the bags.

"You went shopping for Julian? Wow! I don't even know what to say right now." Jackie was amazed that Hyde had gone out of his way to be so thoughtful. He hated shopping. She opened the bag and pulled out different types of toys, mostly cars and trucks and a few blocks and building sets as well as a few books. "Steven this is incredible. I can't believe you did this. Thank you so much." She was truly shocked.

"Yeah well I noticed he didn't have enough guy stuff around here. You're gonna make him girly like Foreman with all these stuffed animals." Hyde said trying to downplay the thoughtfulness of his gesture.

She laughed "Well we can't have that but seriously Steven that was really sweet. Well let's go eat and then maybe afterwards Julian can go play with all his new stuff."

The three of them sat at the dinning area, Julian in his high chair and Jackie and Hyde at the table as they ate dinner. Sitting there at the table made him miss the Formans, both Red and Kitty, in particular, who had made him a huge going away dinner before he left. Hyde was really glad not to be eating dinner alone for the night. He hadn't had a home-cooked meal since moving to Minneapolis. He was able to cook for himself but he hadn't bothered. Most of his meals were either fast food or something out of a can. "Hey Jackie this is pretty good. So much better than the last time you tried to make me something." he admitted.

"I remember that was such a disaster. I'm glad you like it. I got the recipe from a cookbook." she stated proudly. "Would you like a drink? I have soda, juice and oh I bought a six-pack of beer. It's in the fridge if you want one."

"I'll just take a soda if you don't mind." Hyde replied as Jackie went into the kitchen.

"So how's the store coming along?" she asked as she brought the drinks back from the kitchen.

"It's going good so far. It should be completely done in about two months."

"How come WB is opening up a new store? I thought he sold the chain and left you the last one." Jackie asked.

"He did. This new store is actually going to sell electronic gadgets as well as music. WB feels like personal electronics are going to be the wave of the future so we're revamping the Grooves name for the new store." Hyde answered.

"Well I'm sure it will be a huge success." she said thoughtfully.

"Thanks. I hope so."

After dinner was done, the three of them moved into the living room. They all sat down on the floor with the toys Hyde had brought spread out in front of them. They had built things with the blocks, used the cars to knock them down and even read one of the books. Currently Hyde and Jackie were sitting across from each other rolling one of the trucks back and forth as Julian crawled between them chasing after the truck and laughing. They kept of their activities until the infant began rubbing his little eyes and slowing down. Jackie looked at the clock at noticed it was almost 9pm. "I didn't realize it was so late. I think someone has tired himself out. I'm going to go change him and put him down for bed."

"Alright. Goodnight little guy." Steven said as he rubbed the baby's head.

Jackie picked Julian up into her arms and carried him to his room. Steven remained in the living room and started cleaning up the toys that were scattered around the room. After he finished putting everything away he sat down on the couch to await Jackie's return. He thought about how the evening had gone so far. Everything had been going great but he knew that the night was far from over. Now that Julian was going to bed he hoped that he could finally talk to her so they could finally clear the air about a few things that had been left unsaid. He sat quietly on the couch mentally preparing for what was next. About five minutes later he heard Jackie coming back down the hall.

"Julian fell right to sleep once I changed him into his jammies. I'm about to grab a soda from the fridge. The six-pack is still in here. Did you want me to grab you a beer?" Jackie asked.

"Um no thanks. I'm not really big on beer these days." Hyde answered.

"Steven Hyde is not big on beer? Is that even legal?" She laughed. "Well I don't keep any hard liquor in the house. I actually don't keep beer either but I thought you might want one."

"Thanks anyway but I don't want anything else. I uh..I don't drink anymore." Steven said solemnly.

Jackie noticed the serious expression on his face and stopped laughing. "What do you mean you don't drink anymore? Steven what's going on?"

"Yeah I wanted to talk to you about that. A lot of things happened when you left. You might want to sit down."

"Alright now you're scaring me. Is everything okay?" Jackie took a seat next to Hyde on the couch and turned to face him.

"Yeah everything is fine. Well at least it is now. I need to tell you a few things. As you already know I'm not a big talker so this is kind of hard for me but if we're going to be friends this is something you need to know and I owe it to you to fill you in. " Hyde took a deep breath "Jackie I'm an alcoholic. A recovering alcoholic that is."

"Excuse me. What? An alcoholic? What are you…how is that…Steven…" Jackie was at a loss for words.

"Just listen to me. This will be just as hard for you to hear as it is for me to say but please hear me out." Steven pleaded.

"Okay I'm listening."

"I guess I've always drank quite a bit as I'm sure you can remember but it was much worse than you knew, much worse than anyone really knew actually, but after you left that all changed. Probably about two months after you left is when things really started to spiral out of control. I was pretty much drinking non-stop. I'd wake up and drink, drink at work and by the time I came home at night I was completely wasted. Everyone had noticed it by then and all of them had tried to talk to me at some point but I was still in denial. I didn't think I had a problem but I slowed down a bit to get everyone off my back. It seemed to work for a while. Everyone went about their own lives. Foreman and Donna were about to head off to college, Kelso was busy with his family and Fez was working a lot and I found myself drinking heavily again. Then in June of last year is when the shit finally hit the fan." Hyde stopped talking and put his head down.

Jackie could sense that whatever he was about to say was either extremely hard or embarrassing for him. She figured probably both. Steven had never been one to open up easily. When they were together, he would open up sometimes when they were alone, especially after they were intimate. He would tell her things she knew that no one else about him. It was those moments that kept her faith in him all those time when things became difficult. She quickly remembered what she used to do during those moments that would encourage him to talk more. She reached out and grabbed his hand and began stroking it with her thumb.

Hyde looked down at her hand on his and relaxed just a bit. He knew there was no turning back at this point and if he was being honest with himself he didn't want to. He looked back up at Jackie and continued "One night I was coming back from the bar after drinking heavily which was my norm by that point. Somehow I managed to make it to my car and back home. I pulled into the driveway but everything was a blur. Next thing I knew I had run over something. I thought it was probably the basketball or something stupid Forman left in the driveway until I heard the scream. Red and Forman came running out and I stumbled out if the car. I looked down and realized I had run over Mrs. Forman with my car. " Hyde put his face in his hand struggling with the memory.

"Oh my God! Was she…is she…" Jackie said in a panic at the thought of Mrs. Forman being seriously hurt.

"No no no she's fine. Thankfully it was only her foot but Jackie I was so drunk I didn't even know I hurt her. If it wasn't for her yelling out in pain I would've just went in the house. Man I had never seen Red so furious in my life. We managed to get her to the hospital and the whole gang had arrived. I was still pretty drunk but I knew that everyone in that room was pissed at me. WB came to the hospital and talked to Red and Mrs. Forman. Once I was sober enough they finally sat me down to talk to me. I thought I was going to be ripped to shreds by Red and WB but they didn't yell at me at all. They did something else. They told me how disappointed they were in me. Jackie I'll never forget the look on their faces that day. I had never felt so low in my life. It still haunts me to this day. Probably the only other time I can compare it to was the look on your face when you found out about Sam. You know that moment when you messed up so big you feel like there's nothing in the world you can do to fix it." Hyde said honestly.

Jackie was beyond astonished at this point. First with the news that he was alcoholic, then that he'd hurt Mrs. Forman and then the whopper he just laid on her about the moment Sam arrived. She figured they would come back to that but first she needed to find out what happened with him and the Formans. "So then what happened Steven?" she asked.

"Well Red told me that he was seriously considering pressing charges but only thing holding him back at the moment was WB and Mrs. Foreman. WB knew that I'd go to jail if he did that so instead him and Red worked out another deal. Red agreed not to press charges if I got help for my drinking. WB found a program for me in Milwaukee. I would have to go there for 3 months or go to jail. I felt like I didn't have much of a choice. Red threatened that if I didn't complete the program he would be pressing charges. I was so angry with them all. You know how I was about people forcing me to do things and here they were forcing me to go to a place where 'the man' was going to be watching my every god dammed move. I decided that I would go but I was going to do things my own way. Even then, after hurting Mrs. Forman, I was still too proud and stubborn to admit I had a problem. I left the next day for Milwaukee with saying goodbye to anyone. I figured I would do my time in the program and when I got out I was gonna leave Point Place for good. They didn't need me and I sure as hell didn't need them. Well the first two weeks I was there I was a complete asshole to everyone in the place. I went to my meetings and therapy sessions but I wouldn't participate. I was just there to get everyone off my back but then one day I went to the group session and there was this guy who came in that night to speak. He was maybe about a few years away from forty I'd say but Jackie when I heard him speak it was like listening to my own life story. He talked about how he was abandoned early in his life and how he tried to skate thru life without effort and as a result he found a way to destroy every good thing that happened to him. He pushed away all the people that loved him one by one. He couldn't trust people and the few people he did trust had finally had enough of him and his drinking. He said when he finally realized he reached rock bottom it was too late. He drunkenly crashed his car into his ex-wife's car and paralyzed his own daughter. At that moment it finally hit me that I could've killed Mrs. Forman. I thought about what my life would have been like if that happened. I felt hot and suddenly the room was closing in on me. I couldn't breathe and felt nauseous at the same time. I ran out of the room into hall where one of the counselors found me having a panic attack. Me, Steven Hyde, Zen master was having a panic attack. I finally calmed down and after the group session was over the guy who was speaking came and found me. He sat down and started talking to me. Long story short, he told me that I didn't want to end up like him. In a situation where all the apologies in the world would never make up for his mistakes and that since he can't make it up to the people he hurt the only thing he could do is try to keep others from doing the same. He told me if I was lucky enough to still have the chance to apologize and be forgiven, that I should be grateful and never take it for granted. His words really shook me and I finally got serious about my recovery and even therapy. I did my best to make things right between the Forman and WB. I graduated from the program and have been clean and sober ever since. It's been a little over a year now." Hyde finally finished and sat back knowing that he had just giving Jackie a lot of information to process.

Jackie was speechless. She had no idea where to even begin. "Wow. Um okay I don't even know what to say. I'm just so shocked by all this right now. I guess my first question is when did this all start? The drinking I mean."

"I'd say things really start to get bad a little after I found out that Bud wasn't my real father. Edna always told me I was just like my father which I always assumed meant Bud. She knew he wasn't my father but she compared me to him every chance she could. What did that say about me? I was just like him even though he wasn't blood? I felt like I had no real identity. That was when things started to get outta hand. I started drinking heavily from that moment on. I just wanted to forget about it all. I would wake up and drank at least 3-4 beers early in the morning and then go back to sleep. I would drink at work and night. I tried to only drink enough to take the edge off most times. I would only get real shit-faced drunk when we were all together so I wouldn't be so obvious. I thought maybe you'd noticed a few times but you never fully did. I knew you could tell something had changed but you had no idea what the real reason behind it was."

She knew that she had seen a change in Steven but at the time Jackie just thought it was due to his immaturity. She never once thought about how finding out Bud was not his father would affect him. Once they had finally met WB she thought that everything was fine. She had supported him but she was so focused on the fact the WB was in the picture. She had no clue about the psychological impact it had on Hyde. She felt suddenly felt terrible that she could've missed it. "Oh Steven I'm so sorry. I should've seen…."

Hyde cut her off immediately. "Don't you dare apologize to me. You have nothing to apologize for. You couldn't have known. I was the one who didn't believe in talking about my problems. Anyway, by the time you got the job offer in Chicago things were getting pretty bad but I didn't think I had a problem even though I was hiding how bad my drinking was from everyone. I had convinced myself that I was gonna try and get myself together. I knew you deserved that plus with Forman leaving I figured it was time to grow up a bit. Well things didn't go as planned and after the incident in Chicago with Kelso happened I totally lost it. I went on a binge like never before and you already know how that ended…Sam and that whole disaster. Well once I was clean and sober I finally had a chance to reflect on a lot of things that happened in my life. I made so many excuses on why I couldn't do the right thing. It was the government trying to control me or it's what people expected out of me but the truth was I was a coward. I tried to make it looked it was everyone else who had the problem but the common denominator was me. Listen Jackie, part of my recovery process is to make amends with the people that I've hurt by my actions. I've always had a hard time with words and saying the appropriate thing so my counselor thought it would be a good idea to write letters instead. I wrote and gave letters to the Formans, WB, and the whole gang." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out an envelope. "Even though I didn't know where you were or if I'd ever see you again I had lot of things I needed to say to you so I wrote you one too. I thought about leaving it at your old house or sending it to your dad in case he knew where you were but it just didn't seem right so I kept it with me just in case. So um here you go." he said as he handed it to her.

Jackie took the envelope from Hyde in complete shock. Her hands were trembling as she opened the envelope. She looked at him one more time and then began to read.

 _Jackie,_

 _You already know I've never been one with trying to express myself with words or the kind of guy who says the right thing but I'm gonna try and even though I deserve it, I hope you don't tear up and throw this letter away as soon as you realize it's from me, Steven. You owe me nothing but I ask that you please hear me out. With that being said I guess I'm going to dive right in and just get right to the point of this letter. Jackie I'm sorry._

 _You're probably saying yeah okay sorry for what, but the thing is I can't apologize for everything because it would take too long to list every awful thing I've put you through. I used to think that an apology was just a way to make the person apologizing feel better. But now I know that even if part of that is true the other person still needs to hear the apology especially when they deserve one and Jackie no one deserves one more than you. And although you might not accept it, I'd like to apologize anyway. We both made mistakes during our relationship but the mistakes I made were so much more extreme than anything you've ever did. I was supposed to be your protector and instead, in the end, I made your life worse instead of better. You were the only woman I ever loved and I took you for granted and I gave nothing in return. I made you feel like you weren't enough when the truth is you were more than I ever deserved. Then when we were over I kept inflicting more grief on you. I regret that part the most._

 _I'm not writing this to you because I'm asking for another chance to be a part of your life because I'm not sure there's a way to come back from all I put you through. I made a mess of things in my life and I feel terrible at the thought that I've caused other people pain, especially you. I just want you to know that I realize now how toxic I was. I hope wherever you are now that you truly are happy. You deserve that and then some. Whether or not it matters anymore, I just wanted you to know that I really am sorry for everything._

By this time Jackie couldn't control the tears running down her face. She had waited to hear those words from him for so long when she was back in Point Place. She had had finally come to the conclusion before she left that she would probably never hear them but here it was in writing none the less. "For so long I thought that maybe I made it all up. That maybe I was making us out to be more than we were and you and I didn't really have anything. But the hurt, it was so real, so that meant we had to be as well." She was sobbing uncontrollably as the memories came rushing back.

And just like a force of habit, Hyde quickly grabbed Jackie into his arms and he began to console her. "No you didn't imagine it. It was real. I felt it too but I was the one who couldn't handle things and I'm so sorry. Please don't cry. I didn't mean to hurt you again. I just wanted you to know the truth."

She had never seen him look so vulnerable and genuine as he did right now. She could tell that he had been carrying this around with him almost as long as her but it was time to settle things now. "Steven you didn't hurt me again. The truth is I still carry around a lot of the hurt that I felt from our relationship and our break up and it hurts to talk about those memories but I needed to deal with it. We needed to deal with it so I'm glad you gave me the letter. Thank you."

Hyde removed his arms from around her and looked her in the eyes. "Are we going to be okay? I really do want to try to be your friend but I understand if after hearing everything you don't think that's possible." he asked worried that he may have reopened some old wounds.

"Well before I answer that I have one or two question for you. You said that you were recovering. How is that going for you? I mean how are you coping now?" Jackie questioned.

"As I said before I've been sober for a year now. After I left program, I joined a support group back in Point Place and attended meetings regularly for a while. My group leader put me in contact with a group here in Minneapolis. Actually the woman who you saw at the store yesterday was a local sponsor from the group. I kinda had a rough day the other day and instead of doing what I used to do which was drink, I called my group leader.."

"Was that the day I yelled at you?" Jackie asked realizing she probably caused the episode. "Oh my God I'm so sorry."

"No Jackie, you don't need to apologize again. It was just an old bad habit that wanted to rear its head. Every time you and I had problems I always did something destructive but this time I didn't give in. I worked through it. I mean I still have a ways to go but I've come a long way and I'm learning better ways to handle things." he told her truthfully.

"It really sounds like you have. Listen Steven I can see that you've grown quite a bit and I want to still want to try to be friends and as long as you are in control of things we can do that but if things start to get out of control then we have to end it. I can't have that around Julian. I hope you can understand that." Jackie knew that this wasn't the same Steven she left a year and a half ago but she had to make things clear.

"I understand completely and believe you me I would end it myself before I put you or your son through anything like that." Hyde knew she had every right to be concerned but hoped that what he'd shown her so far was a good enough start to their new beginning.

"Okay then we should be good." she said as she smiled a him.

"Good." He smiled back. "Well it's getting pretty late and I have to go early tomorrow to meet with some suppliers for the store. Thank you for tonight. Dinner was really great." He got up and headed towards the door.

Jackie joined him at the doorway. "You're welcome and thank you too. For the gifts and the letter. Do you mind if I keep it?"

"Of course not. It's yours. Well goodnight." Hyde smiled then turned to leave.

"Goodnight Steven." and with that Jackie shut the door and leaned against it and let out a sigh of relief. Dinner had gone so much better than she had ever imagined. She walked back over to the living room and picked up the letter. She clutched it in her hands and headed towards the bedroom. She opened up her closet and grabbed a familiar box and put it inside with a few other things that her dinner guest had given her over the years. She put the box away and got ready for bed. And for the first time in a while, Jackie went to bed feeling so much better than she had in a long time.

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Thanks for reading. All feedback is welcome.


	7. Chapter 7

Thanks again to all of you who have taken the time to read, review, favorite and follow. I'm still appreciative =).

That 70's Show and it's characters still do not belong to me. Enjoy!

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Chapter 7

September 12, 1981

The next several weeks flew by and summer was soon coming to an end. Initially, there was still a bit awkward between them but as the weeks progressed Hyde and Jackie had found a pretty good rhythm to spending time together. They found themselves in each others company at least four times a week. Jackie and Julian were now familiar faces down at Grooves and Hyde was a regular for dinner at the Burkhart residence. This particular Saturday, the trio were going to be together once again. Hyde had invited Jackie and son over for lunch. He was feeling slightly anxious since it was her first time at his place and due to important matters that he needed to discuss with her. He hoped that everything went smoothly.

Jackie and Julian arrived by cab around 11:30. Hyde had offered to come pick them up but Jackie insisted on getting there on her own since he was providing lunch. When the cab pulled up to Hyde's building, it was certainly not what she was expecting. The building was very upscale and looked to be recently built. It was in a very nice area of the city overlooking the Mississippi River. She sat Julian down in his stroller and walked into the building. It looked even better inside. She was greeted at the front desk by the security guard.

"Good day ma'am. Welcome to the Ivory Towers. May I ask who you are here to see today?" said the gentleman.

"I'm Jackie Burkhart here to see Steven Hyde." Jackie replied.

"Very good. I'll let him know you have arrived." He stated as he picked up the phone and dialed. He spoke briefly then turned back to Jackie. "Why yes Ms. Burkhart, Mr. Hyde is expecting you. Take the elevator to the 21st floor and the door is 21D."

Jackie finally made her up and Hyde was waiting for her once she got off the elevator. "Hey Jackie." he said as he greeted her. He bent down and patted Julian on the head in his stroller. "Hey Jules."

"Jules?" Jackie asked surprised at his new nickname for her son.

"Yeah. I figured he needs a cool guy nickname. Julian is a cool name with the ladies but it's not gonna scare any tough guys away." Both Hyde and Jackie laughed.

"Ba…ba" Julian gurgled out reaching his hands up toward Hyde. He had grown quite attached to him over the past few weeks.

"Well it looks like he approves of his nickname." said Jackie.

"Come here little guy." Hyde bent down and picked Julian out of his stroller. "Follow me. My place is right over here." He said as he led them to the apartment.

Hyde let her inside and right away Jackie's jaw dropped. She was absolutely stunned. The apartment was breathtaking. It was extremely spacious, modern, pristine and decorated very tastefully. Once she finally closed her mouth she spoke up. "Wow! Steven this place is amazing!" We've been having dinner and my crappy apartment and we could've been eating here? Are you sure you live here?" she joked.

"I think so but if not someone's gonna be pissed once they find out I've been camping out here for the last three month." he said laughingly.

He gave her a tour of the apartment. Jackie noticed how big all the rooms were. The whole place was about three or four times bigger than her whole apartment. There was a huge living room with very high ceilings and huge windows that let in the sunlight. It had a door leading to small terrace that overlooked the river and the city. There was a formal dining room, a small office area in the front and a half bathroom. The kitchen was filled with the latest appliances and was also pretty big with a breakfast nook for eating. The hallway led to the laundry room as well as two impressive sized bedrooms on each side, which were currently set up as guest rooms. There was also a full size bathroom. At the end of the hall was a staircase, which led to a door of a loft like area that contained the master bedroom. The bedroom was huge and contained it's own bathroom, a full sized walk in closet and long bow windows a beautiful view. There was another small area on the other side of the bedroom, which had a staircase that led back down to the living room.

Hyde had been hesitant about bringing Jackie here at first because he didn't want to come off as pretentious especially since she was living rather modestly. But as they gained a more comfortable flow in their new friendship, he knew that she would enjoy spending time here so he finally offered an invitation. "Honestly it's a bit much for my taste. You know I'm used to living in a basement with a cot. WB bought the place when we decided to open a store here in the city and he insisted on me staying in it so..here I am." He explained as he saw her still trying to take it all in.

"I think it's great. You grew up pretty rough at Edna's and put a lot of years in the basement. I know you're not the type to care to care where you lay your head but this is nice. You deserve this so enjoy it." She told him sincerely.

"Yeah well thanks." he said awkwardly. "Alright so go make yourself comfortable. Lunch is just about done." He handed Julian back to her and headed to the kitchen.

The trio finished eating lunch and convened to the living room. Julian was now napping on the love seat and Jackie and Hyde were sitting on the couch watching television. Jackie had her eyes on the screen but she kept noticing him glancing at her. She could tell he wanted to say something but in usual Hyde fashion was finding trouble. After about the ninth glance she finally decided to call him on it. "Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Um yeah why?" he nervously responded.

"Well you keep looking at me like you have something to say so spit it out." she laughingly.

"I guess you caught me. Okay well the thing is, as you know the store is opening in two weeks and WB is throwing a big grand opening. I invited the whole gang and the Formans down for that weekend for the big opening and I was kinda hoping that you would come too." He gave her a sheepish look knowing what her response would more than likely be.

Jackie immediately felt nervous. As much as she missed the old gang, she was nowhere prepared to see them anytime soon. "Look Steven as much as I am extremely proud of you and what you're doing with the store I don't think I can be there. I'm just don't want to see anyone yet. I hope you understand."

"I had a feeling that's what you were gonna say. I don't expect this to be easy for you but don't you think its time you at least let them know you didn't just fall off the earth. Even though things weren't that great when you left they still miss you and would be happy to see you." he tried to reason with her.

Jackie jumped up from the couch "No I'm not ready. I really hope you don't get mad over this but I can't. I just can't"

"I'm not mad Jackie. I just think that it would be good for you so spend time with them again." He stood up, grabbed her hand and led her back to the couch. "Listen I know things were strained with everyone when you left. I get that but when I was at my lowest point last year those people, the ones who could be aggravating and infuriating are the same ones who had my back when I needed them the most. When they all should've given up on me they didn't. They fought for me and with me and I wouldn't have come thru it without them. Jackie they're my family and as much as you may not want to admit it they're yours too." Hyde saw that he was getting thru to her but he needed to drive his point home. "And what about your son? Yes Julian has you and you're a terrific mom but you're all he's got. He's probably never gonna have his real grandparents around. You and I both got dealt a crappy hand when it comes to our real families. They left us and if it weren't for our surrogate family, the Formans and the gang, things would've been a whole lot worse. He deserves to have a family who will love him and those guys will. You just have to be willing to give them a chance."

By this time the tears were flowing from her eyes. Jackie realized just how right he was. Her son had absolutely no family in his life. He didn't have a father and because she was estranged from her parents there was no one else on her side of the family in which she kept in contact. She never intended for her life to turn out like this. When she was dating Hyde she knew that they would have the Formans and WB if they ever had children but that time had come to an end. Afterwards she still expected to be married once she had a child and that her child or children and husband would be her family and her husband's family as well if he had one but that wasn't the case now. "Oh my God. My baby doesn't have a family. I never even thought about it. If something were to happen to me he would have no one." she cried.

"But it doesn't have to be that way. He can have an aunt Donna and uncle Eric, uncle Fez and uncle Kelso and I know Red and Kitty would just adore him." he told her assuredly.

"And what about you? Does he have you too?" she asked hopeful that Hyde would be willing to remain a part of Julian's life as well.

"Of course he does for as long as you'll both have me. The little guy has really grown on me. He's a great kid." he told her.

"Thank you. That means a lot to me, to both of us. Julian is quite fond of you as well."

"So will you at least think about it? You don't have to decide today." He was hopeful that maybe his words had gotten thru to her.

"I'll think about it I promise. It's not that I don't want to see them. I just don't want them to see me like this. This isn't how I expected my life to turn out; a single mom working at a crappy dinner just to make ends meet. I thought things would be different ya know?"

He did know. He knew that was the main issue she had with seeing the old gang. Jackie had always been a proud person and she hated to be pitied. She wouldn't want them feeling sorry for her or looking at her differently because of her current situation. He understood how she felt and was prepared with a solution to help her. "Hey Jackie. There was something else I wanted to talk to you about. How would you feel about getting back into television again?"

"I'd love to but I don't know it's possible right now. I looked into getting another production assistant job once I had Julian but the only positions open called for me working 60 or more hours a week and there was no way I was leaving my baby for twelve or more hours a day. I haven't really looked into it much after that." she replied.

"Well how would you feel about possibly working as an assistant on Wake Up Minneapolis? One of WB's good friends, Jeff Hunter, run things down at the station and he told me they're looking for someone. I got in touch with the old cable station back in Point Place and got some of your old tapes and he wants to meet with you next week if you're interested." Hyde told her. The truth was Hyde had contacted WB to see what he could do to help Jackie get back to what she loved doing. He hated seeing her struggling doing something she didn't like.

Jackie could hardly believe what he was telling her. She started jumping up and down on the couch like a kid at Christmas and grabbed him by both of his hands. "Are you serious? Please tell me you're not kidding." she yelled sounding like the loud girl everyone knew back in Point Place.

He laughed at her eagerness "I'm dead serious. He's expecting your call Monday."

Suddenly there was a small cry coming from the loveseat. Jackie with her loud display of enthusiasm had woken up Julian. She ran over to him and picked him up. "Oh baby, mommy's sorry. She just got a little excited cause she might be getting a great new job." she said as she rocked him gently and brought him back over to the couch with her. "Steven oh my goodness! What am I going to wear? I don't have anything to wear."

"How could you not have anything to wear? You had more clothes than everyone I knew put together."

"Well I couldn't bring all my clothes with me when I moved here and even though I lost my baby weight things fit a little differently now. I'm a little bigger in certain places." she said shyly.

Hyde looked her up and down and grinned "Yeah but in all the _right_ places."

"Shut up you pig." she laughed as well and swatted his arm.

"Alright well how about we go shopping to find you something to wear then?" Hyde asked. Jackie was always down for a good shopping trip but her finances were extremely tight at the moment. He could sense her apprehension and knew it was probably not something she could afford to do right now. "And it's my treat by the way." he told her.

"So you want to go shopping with me and you're paying? I'm convinced you've been replaced by a pod person" she joked. "But seriously Steven not that I'm ungrateful or anything I just have to ask why are you doing all this for me?"

He couldn't tell her the full truth, which was that he felt totally responsible that her life had turned out the way it had since she got pregnant from a one night stand trying to block out the pain that he had caused her. And because of it she's stuck at a job she hates and is barely making ends meet. He very well couldn't tell her about the guilt that haunts him every time he sees her in her work uniform or notices her struggling to pay for something so he decided on telling her only part of the truth. "It's because I know you aren't happy do what you do now. You weren't meant to be serving food to people or sweeping hair or any of other jobs like that. You're meant to shine Jackie. I know I wasn't as supportive as I should've been when we were together and I'm sorry about that. As your friend, I want to be better at it and anything I can do to help I will. So come on. Let's hit the mall. We'll call it payback for those boots you got me all those years ago." he said smiling at her.

She looked at him and in that moment she realized just how much he had grown up. Steven had always been protective of his friends but now he was giving and thoughtful. He had become or was well on his way to becoming the man she always knew he could be. She was fighting hard not to get too emotional again. She pulled herself together and finally replied "Well alright then. Let's go." She put Julian in his stroller and gathered all their belongings. Once they got to the front door she turned to him and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you Steven." she said simply.

He nodded and they headed out the door.

* * *

September 15, 1981

The skies may have been a bit overcast that day but anyone who saw Jackie Burkhart would've thought it was a bright sunny day. She had an exuberant smile on her face. For the first time in a long time she felt energized and alive. As she made her way down to Grooves she was bubbling with eagerness. She entered the building looked for Hyde who was over at the counter training a new employee. She hurried over to him and tried her best not to interrupt but with her being so eager to tell him her good news and never having been one with patience she burst out in excitement. "I got the job!"

Hyde looked upon hearing her voice. He noticed how she was beaming. He always thought she was the most beautiful when she was smiling in such a way that way she was at that moment. He got lost in his thought momentarily until he heard her calling him.

"Steven. Did you hear me? I got the job!" she said once again.

He shot her the biggest smile he could. "Really? That's so great Jackie!" He told his employee to take a break and then stepped from behind the counter and greeted her with a hug. "Come on let's go to my office you can tell me all about your new job."

They made their way back to the office and sat down. "Ok so fill me in. How was the interview?"

"Oh my God Steven the interview was awesome. I met with the WB's friend Mr. Hunter and two of the producers from the show. They said they saw the tapes you sent them from my show and they loved my energy. They want to start me as an assistant and have me learn the ropes. If I pick up well and learn quickly I'll have a chance for advancement that could lead to some small segments on the show. They will also pay for any communications classes I want to take and the best part is the hours. I go in at 4am but get done by noon every day and no weekends!" she exclaimed.

Hyde had never felt more proud of her than at that moment. "Jackie I knew they would love you. I'm so happy for you. You're gonna do great. I just know it."

"I just want to say thanks again for your help with this. You've been really great over these last few weeks and I appreciate everything you've done for me and well, I've been doing some thinking over the last few days. Maybe it is time to come face to face with everyone again. I do miss everyone and you're right. Julian does deserve to have a family. I just hope they're willing to accept us." Jackie realized some of her relationships with the gang needed repairing, mainly her and Donna and her and Fez but she was willing to try because that's you do for family.

"Of course they'll accept you. You're Jackie Burkhart. You can win over anyone." He kidded. "They're just gonna be happy to know where you are and that you're doing fine."

"Yeah I'm just a little nervous about seeing everyone but I'm looking forward to it. When do they arrive?"

"They'll get here on Friday afternoon. WB has a dinner planned that night for everyone. Saturday is the grand opening celebration. Then I'm not really sure what we're doing on Sunday just yet." Hyde told her.

"Well do you think on Sunday that maybe we could have a birthday party for Julian since he turns one on the 28th? I haven't planned anything to do for his birthday yet and I think it would be nice to have everyone there to celebrate his first big day." Jackie asked hopefully.

"I think that's a great idea Jackie. We can use my place for the party if you'd like and I'm sure we can talk Mrs. Forman into baking a cake and some other stuff." He truly missed her cooking and figured that would be a perfect excuse for her to christen his kitchen.

"Okay great. I'll pick up the decorations. I'm actually getting excited now. Yay!" she said happily. "Well I'd better be heading home now. Are you swinging by for dinner tonight?"

"Yeah but how about me, you and Jules go out for dinner tonight instead so we can celebrate your new job?" he asked.

"Really? Oh my goodness. Why yes that sounds great." she said as she clapped her hands and jumped up and down.

"Cool. I'll pick you guys around 6:30."

Jackie left Grooves and Hyde sat back in his office chair. He let out a breathe of relief grateful that she had gotten the job. Things were finally going well between the two of them. He was seeing more and more glimpses of the perky, talkative, determined to take over the world girl he knew from back home. She was slowly but surely becoming his Jacks again.

* * *

As always, thanks for reading.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

September 25, 1981

The big day had finally arrived and although Hyde would never admit it out loud he was extremely anxious about how the weekend was going to turn out. He had all but assured Jackie that everything would be fine but in reality he had no idea how everyone would react to seeing her for the first time in almost two years. He hoped that things weren't too overwhelming but most of all he hoped that these three days weren't too much of a disruption to stable but still yet fragile friendship he and Jackie were building. Things were going well now but he couldn't afford any more mess ups and the gang had a flare for screwing things up in big ways.

After she had agreed to the weekend, both Jackie and Hyde decided it would be best for everyone to find out about her once they arrived. They figured if the gang knew in advance, they would be badgering Hyde non-stop about Jackie until the time they arrived. At least with everyone finding out at the same time they could try to field all questions at once or so they hoped.

Hyde had spent all morning making sure everything was in order for the arrival of the Point Place gang. WB had arranged for a cleaning service to come in the night before to make sure the place was spotless. It was previously agreed upon that everyone would be staying with him. Donna and Eric would take one of the guest rooms while Hyde decided to put Fez and Kelso together in the other room since Brooke was unable to attend the weekend activities. Hyde decided to take the pull out couch in office and give Red and Kitty the master bedroom. Red preferred not to stay in a house full of 'dumbasses' and tried to book a hotel like WB but Kitty put her foot down saying that she wanted to spend as much time as she could with her precious 'baby boy' Steven.

Hyde had just finished talking to the store's assistant manager Greg on the phone going over last minute details for the next day's opening when the intercom from the lobby security buzzed thru advising him of the gang's arrival. He decided to go meet them in lobby to assist them with their bags. As he got off the elevator he could already hear a commotion underway. He smiled.

"Well geez, how was I supposed to know headrests are flammable?" asked the one and only Michael Kelso.

"Ai you sonuvabitch, you singed my glorious hair!" screamed Fez.

"Well I guess that's what you call a buuuuuurn." shouted Kelso.

"If you kettleheads don't pipe down I'm gonna put a foot in your ass. Kitty are you sure we can't go get a room? I never gonna survive three days with these idiots." said Red.

"Oh Red Forman, you'll be just fine. If you survived all these years, you can make it through the weekend. We're here to support…Oh my God look it's Steven!" Kitty exclaimed as she ran over to Hyde and grabbed him up in a hug.

"Hey Mrs. Forman, Red." Hyde hugged her back and then gave Red a handshake.

"It's good to see you son. Now please hurry up and get us upstairs before these jackasses destroy the whole lobby." said Red.

Hyde laughed and as the rest of the bunch hurried over to greet him. "Hey guys." Kelso, Fez and Eric grabbed him into a group hug. "Okay ladies that's enough of that." he said as squirmed out of their embrace. "Hey Big D."

"Hey Hyde. You look great" Donna leaned in and gave him a hug.

"Thanks. Alright let's get you guys upstairs before Red pops a blood vessel. "

The Point Place crew finally made there way upstairs and into the apartment. Once they were inside they all stood there in awe. "You live here?" asked Fez.

"This place is freakin' awesome and huge!" Donna said as she dropped her bags and started to look around.

"It's totally better than that tiny apartment of yours" said Kelso tactlessly as he pointed at Donna and Eric.

"Yeah…well..oh who am I kidding? I can fit our apartment in here like ten times." Eric assessed as he took a look around.

"Steven this is simply wonderful. I'm so proud of you." cried Kitty as she wiped her eyes and hugged Hyde once again.

"Thanks Mrs. Forman." said Hyde.

Hyde gave them a quick tour of the place and showed them each to their respective rooms for the weekend. They all freshened up from the road and then had lunch that Hyde prepared for them before arriving. Red and Kitty had retired to the master bedroom while they gang sat in the living room talking among themselves. Hyde decided it was time to make an announcement. "Hey guys can you listen up for a moment?" The gang quickly settled down and focused on him. "I have a surprise for you guys and it should be here any minute. Once it gets here you have to promise me you won't freak out too much or you'll ruin it." he told them in hopes that they wouldn't be too caught off guard but he knew it was probably unavoidable.

"A surprise? Did you bring us some whores for the weekend?" Fez asked.

"Fez!" yelled Donna as she slapped his arm.

"What? With a place like this I'm sure Hyde is bringing them home by the dozens." he said in his Fez like way.

"No Fez sorry to disappoint you but there will be no whores here this weekend. Well except for Kelso."

"Burn! Oh wait that was on me…eh it still a good burn." Kelso said as he and the gang laughed.

Jackie made her way to the lobby with Julian in her arms. Nervous was not even the word to describe how she was feeling at the moment. She had to talk herself into not turning around and going back home at least three times on the way there. She knew this needed to be done but she was still apprehensive about seeing everyone, however she figured now was a good time. After an extremely long run of doom and gloom in her life things seem to be turning around. She had finally found a job she loved. She just finished her last shift at the dinner and Monday she would start her new job at the television station. Plus things were also going well between her and Steven. They had finally found a way to coexist without tearing one another apart and he was super supportive of her and Julian.

The security guard had called to the apartment to let Hyde know Jackie had arrived. He turned to the gang. "Hey guys. The surprise is here. I'll be right back." He said as he headed out the door.

Jackie met Hyde as she got off the elevator. "Hey Steven. Is everyone here?" she asked.

"Yeah they're all inside. I just told them I had a surprise for them. They don't know what or who it is though." he told her.

She nodded understandingly "Can you hold Julian for me in case I get bombarded?"

Hyde took Julian from Jackie's arms. He gave her a brief smile. "You can do this."

"I guess it's now or never." She took a deep breath and opened the door. "Hi everyone." she said shyly.

At that moment it was like time stood still. The room grew extremely quiet as they all stared at her like she was a ghost until Kelso decided to be the one to break the silence. "Jackie!" he screamed as ran over to her and lifted her in the air in a hug.

"Hi Michael." she said laughing into his chest.

"Ai my beautiful goddess. It's you. It's really you!" Fez was next to join the reunion running over as well.

"It's really me Fezzie." She said as they gave each other a hug.

Eric, who was still in a state of shock, walked over to join the others. "Hey there devil." he said as he called her by his endearing nickname for her then gave her a huge grin and a hug as well.

"Hey dweeb." She returned both the hug and the endearment before finally turning to the last person in the room that she had yet to greet, Donna. "Hi Donna."

"Jackie. Oh my God…I can't believe you really here." said Donna as she choked up with emotion. She finally made her way over to Jackie and embraced her. "I missed you so so much." The tears had begun to make their way down her face.

By this time Jackie was also crying, "I missed you too." And she really meant it. Even though Donna had been a crappy friend before she left, she still missed the only true female friend she ever had even before she left Point Place.

Red and Kitty, after hearing all the noise coming from downstairs, had decided to come see what was going on. Kitty took one look at Jackie and immediately ran over to Jackie broke down into tears as she held her. "Oh sweetie. I'm so happy to see you. We missed you so much."

"I'm happy to see you too Mrs. Forman. So happy." Jackie knew Mrs. Forman's hugs were the closest she ever felt to being in a loving mother's embrace.

"Don't you ever run away from us again." scolded Kitty in a loving way.

"Kitty let the girl breathe." said Red as he made his way over to Jackie. "Hey there loud one."

"Oh Mr. Forman it's so good to see you." she grabbed Red into a hug and even though he pretended to be slightly annoyed she knew he missed her.

In the hallway, Hyde was rocking Julian back and forth while the reunion was taking place inside his apartment. He figured it was best to wait out the commotion so as not to scare the small child with all the noise he knew was sure to come from seeing Jackie. Once he heard things start to settle down, he made his way into the apartment with Julian.

Eric was the first one to take notice of his return back into the apartment. "Hey Hyde why are you holding a baby? Who's kid is that?"

Everyone turned and looked at Hyde as finally Jackie spoke up. "He's mine."

"What? You have a kid?" asked a surprised Donna.

Jackie walked over and took her child from Hyde. "Yes..I do. Everyone this is my son, Julian."

"Woah he's not mine right? Cause I know my swimmers are probably like super powerful but I haven't touched you in like a long, long, long ,long time." said Kelso in his usual idiot fashion.

"You really still are the king. Of course he's not yours Michael. His father…let's just say he's is not in the picture." Jackie told them not wanting to go into full details at the moment.

Everyone was stunned to silence once again before Kitty decided to speak. "Honey he's absolutely beautiful. Oh Red look a precious baby" she said as fawned over the child.

"Yes Kitty I see." Red cleared his throat before speaking again. "So is that uh why you left town kiddo?" he said asking the million-dollar question of the moment.

"Yeah that and a few other reasons but that was the main one. I was ashamed and with the way things were going at the time I just really couldn't take much more so I left." she told them.

Guilt and shame spread across the group as each of them knew they had let her down in some way. Kelso felt ashamed because he was the first one to disappoint her during their relationship and then once she and Hyde broke up for good after Sam, he went to Chicago and never really checked on her to see how she was doing. He knew if the roles were reversed Jackie would've at least called him every now and then to see how he was doing because after everything she was still his friend. Eric felt guilty for entirely different reasons. He was in Africa when everything went down but once he came back he saw the mess that it all was. He had heard about how Donna neglected her best friend and decided to mind his business because maybe a little 'devil-free' time was a good thing for him and Donna both. He failed to realize how cruel Donna and Hyde had become once he left and once he did it was already too late. Fez was feeling bad because even though he had been somewhat of a shoulder for Jackie during the chaos, he knew she wasn't really over Hyde but he wanted to try a relationship with her anyway. He had always been enamored with her but it was more of the way a fan worships their favorite movie star not like a potential suitor and in the end him dating her caused more harm than good. He knew she felt bad after their break-up and he should have let her off the hook because he was just as aware that it wasn't going to work. Instead he chose to play the victim and it damaged their friendship. Then, there was Donna. Other than Hyde, she was the biggest offender. She had failed to try to find the slightest bit of empathy for her friend. Jackie acted as if she was okay but Donna certainly knew better especially after living with her. She had seen how devastated Jackie was after her and Hyde's other break-ups and this was the worst of them all. He had brought home a wife and instead of comfort for her best friend she offered friendship and sisterhood to the other woman. She laughed at all the burns and jokes at Jackie's expense and even threw in a few herself. She had become so weak and vulnerable when Eric left and she hated herself for it because it was everything she once preached against. So instead of allowing herself to feel weakness she became cruel and bitter and her best friend got caught in the crossfire.

Once Jackie left Point Place and they realized she was never coming back, they each had a time to reflect on just how badly they had treated her. There were quite a few heated arguments between them all as blame got passed around and it seemed as if the group might be done forever. They were barely speaking to each other but then once Hyde's drinking problem was discovered, they took notice of the severity of the situation. During his treatment and recovery they realized just how much they needed one another. They were truly family and together they were all they had. The group made a vow to each other to stick with each other no matter what and now that Jackie had been thrown back into the mix they each knew they would do whatever it took to make it up to her.

Sensing the atmosphere had become a bit uncomfortable Jackie decided to break the tension. "Look guys I'm not saying that to make you feel bad about anything. It's just the way things were. I'll admit I was really angry and bitter for a long time but I don't want to live like that anymore. It's not healthy and it's time to put everything behind us."

"Oh that's just wonderful. All my babies are all together again." Kitty beamed.

"So have you been here since you left?" asked Eric.

"Yes I live about fifteen minutes from here." replied Jackie.

"What have you been up to all this time? Are you doing okay?" Red asked concerned. He might be a hard ass but everyone knew he had a soft spot for Jackie.

"As you guys can see I've got my hands full with this little guy. He keeps me pretty busy. I had a bit of a rough patch but I'm doing well now. I actually just got at a new job at the local TV station thanks to Steven."

Suddenly Donna grew a bit angry. She wondered how long Hyde had known where Jackie was. "Wait a minute. Hyde you knew where she was all this time and never bothered to tell us?' questioned Donna.

'Donna please don't be mad at him. It's not his fault. I asked him not to tell anyone where I was just yet. Steven and I literally ran into each other on the street about two months ago. We decided to try to build a friendship since then. He was just trying to be a good friend by doing me a favor. " answered Jackie.

Donna nodded and sighed. She could understand how Jackie would want to wait before dealing with them especially if she was trying to sort things out with Hyde. She was certain that had been a task in itself with the history between them. Since she was determined to be a better friend she would back any decisions Jackie made on how she wanted to handle any reconciliation between them. Deciding to change the subject she said "Alright so you're like.. a mom! How does that feel?"

"Yeah she's one hot mama. I have to say you are looking migh-tee fine. If I wasn't with Brooke I probably would…" was all Kelso could get out before Hyde frogged him in the arm. "Geez Hyde, I'm just sayin" he said as he rubbed his arm.

"Well don't." said Hyde. He saw the suspicious look that Fez, Eric and Donna were giving him about his protectiveness over Jackie so he tried to play it off "She's someone's mom. Show some respect."

Jackie smiled at the all too familiar scene before answering Donna. "Being a mom has been great. It's challenging but so rewarding and he's such an amazing child. I'm not just saying that because he's mine but I mean hey he's mine." she laughed. "Oh and that reminds me, his first birthday is Monday and since you guys are in town I thought it would be nice to have a party on Sunday before you guys leave. Steven said we could have it here. Mrs. Forman do you think you could make his cake? I so miss your all the treats from your kitchen."

"Oh of course I can make this little angel a cake As a matter of fact, I'll do all the cooking. We need to go shopping tomorrow….yay!" said Kitty jumping up and down and clapping.

"Thanks Mrs. Forman. We can go tomorrow after the grand opening." Jackie replied.

Later that evening they left Steven's apartment and all gathered for dinner at the Chartmore Hotel. WB had reserved the Rainbow Room for the occasion. By this time of the evening, they had finished dinner and were chatting casually with one another. WB stood up and cleared his throat. "Can I have your attention everyone? I just wanted to say thank you all for coming tonight and for being here this weekend. Tomorrow marks a new era for Grooves. This new store represents more than just a place to buy the latest and coolest tunes or the hottest new gadgets. It represents second chances. It represents rebirth and most of all it represents family and that's why it was important for you all to be here this weekend. Steven, son, you've shown so much growth over the last year not only in business but as a man. You got knocked down but you didn't let it stop you. You've owned up to both your mistakes as well as your responsibilities. You were the main reason I decided to open this store. I have already built my legacy and I want to help you build yours. I'm proud of you son." He lifted up a glass of wine to toast. "To new beginnings." he said as everyone lifted their glasses in return and repeated the mantra.

Dinner was wrapping up and everyone was standing around the room holding conversations in smaller groups. WB walked up to Jackie and gave her a hug. "Jackie it's great seeing you again. So I hear you're going to be working for a friend of mine, Jeff. He's a great guy. I'm sure you're going to do well there."

"Mr. Hunter has been wonderful so far and thank you for setting up the opportunity. I really appreciate it." said Jackie. She knew that his connections had gotten her the interview even though Steven had been the one to initiate it.

"No problem at all. You're a natural. Listen I wanted to let you know that if you need anything at all you let me know. I always liked you when you and Steven were together. You pushed him to do better. I know I shouldn't be asking you this but please keep an eye out on him for me. I trust my son and he has come a long way but I know that he has a hard time asking for help if he needs and I don't want to see him get too overwhelmed." he told her.

"Well Steven is a big boy. He's been doing just fine so far. I don't want him to think that I'm keeping tabs on him or anything." Jackie didn't want to betray his trust in anyway.

"No I don't want you to be his keeper or anything like that. You weren't around when he hit bottom. I thought I was gonna lose my son but he fought through it. I know he's strong but if for any reason you feel that something is wrong I just want you to know I'm only a phone call away. That goes for both of you." he said trying to get her to understand that he was in her corner as well.

"Okay I can do that." She said.

At that time Hyde walked over to her with a slightly cranky Julian in his arms. "Hey Jacks I think this little guy is getting sleepy. I think maybe I better take you home now."

"Alright. Let me go grab my stuff and say goodbye to everyone." She grabbed Julian and headed over to the rest of the gang leaving WB and Hyde alone.

"So Steven, it looks like things are going well between you and Jackie again," said WB.

"Yeah but we're just friends." Hyde replied.

"That's great son. I see you really are trying to be there for her and right your wrongs were she's concerned. Everything I said earlier about second chances and new beginnings wasn't just about Grooves. You've been given the gift of another chance. Don't waste it."

And with that WB walked off leaving Hyde there to think about everything he just said. He knew he couldn't deny the fact that if he was given another opportunity to be with Jackie he would grab it tight and never let it go but he wasn't sure that was in the cards. He owed it to her to play whatever role she needed him to play and right now he was pretty certain that role was a friend.

He made his way over to Jackie and the rest of the bunch. "Are you ready to go?" he asked her.

"Yes we're ready. Bye guys I'll see you all tomorrow."

"I'll meet you guys back at the apartment. Red has the key." Hyde said as he turned to leave.

They arrived at Jackie's place quickly. She opened the door as Hyde carried the sleeping infant into the apartment. "Can you go put him in his crib? I'll change him into his pajamas in a little bit." she said as she headed towards the bathroom.

Hyde walked in to Julian's room and laid him down in his crib. He found himself staring at the small child. He looked so innocent just lying there; untarnished by the worries of life. He was a clean slate, a blank canvas so to speak thought Hyde. He wondered how could anyone who had a kid not do any and everything they could to keep them safe from all the bad things going on in the world. Even as much of an idiot Kelso was, he was always so careful and loving with Betsy. It seemed like it should be so natural but he supposed maybe it just wasn't for some people, like his parents. He found himself hoping that Julian never experienced anything like he did in his childhood. Jackie was an excellent mom that wasn't even a question. She was doing a great job on her own but people could be cruel and Jackie was so small. All of sudden he felt the overwhelming need to protect them both. He was deep in thought when Jackie walked in to the room.

"Hey what'cha doing?" asked Jackie.

"Oh uh hey. I was just watching him sleep." he replied.

"I used to do that for hours when I first brought him home. I still watch him sleep especially when I have trouble sleeping." she told him.

"I bet. He just looks so…peaceful ya know."

"Yeah I do. Sometimes I wonder if my parents ever watched me sleep. If they ever found peace in my existence at some point in my life."

"I know what you mean. Sometimes used to wonder if Bud and Edna felt anything at all for me at least once in my life but I realized that I couldn't let those thoughts bother me anymore. Whatever went wrong, it was them who had the problem not me. They just weren't capable of being who they were supposed to be in my life." said Hyde.

"Wow you're right. I guess I never thought about it that way."

"I didn't either until I finally came to grips with it in therapy." Hyde had done a lot of reflecting during his treatment.

"Good for you." Jackie nodded and smiled. "Do you want something to drink?" she asked as they started to head back towards the front of the house.

"No thanks. I better get back home before Kelso and Fez destroy it." He shuddered at the thought of what damage they may have already done.

"Well you better should hurry then." she laughed. "Hey Steven before you go I just want to say thank you. I didn't realize how much I missed those guys. I feel so much better having seen them. I'm so glad you encouraged me to do it." She said as she pulled him into a hug.

"I'm glad too. Today felt really good." He said as he returned the hug.

"It really did. Well goodnight." She kissed him on the cheek and released him.

"Goodnight Jacks." He said as her turned to leave. As he headed back to his car he became aware that he was smiling and for the first time in a long time. He thought that maybe he might actually be happy and not just less pissed off.

* * *

I just wanted to say thank you again to everyone for the reviews and follows. I thought I could write the whole weekend in one chapter but there was too much that needed to be touched upon with the gang so the next chapter will continue with the gang's visit and them trying to repair their relationship with Jackie. Stay tuned and thanks for reading!


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